Red Running Fool
by AngorMike
Summary: Based on Robst's fanfic "In this world and the next" where Harry and Hermoine get betrayed by their best friend, Ron. After dying they get a do over, sent back to their 11 year old selves. But this isn't their story. A guy from our world where Harry Potter canon and fanfic exists gets plopped in Ron's 11 year old body during H&H's do over. Now he's thrown in the deep end.
1. Chapter 1

Early in the morning, in a London hospital a young 11 year old redhead boy groggily opened his eyes, not quite understanding just where he was. Staring blankly at the unfamiliar ceiling tiles, he struggled against to remember his last moment of consciousness. His thoughts were incredibly slow, outside of normal.

'It's almost like I've been drugged.' He thought idly, starting to turn his head to look around, he noticed suddenly that his jaws had been wired shut. 'Huh, I guess it was drugs, if they wired my jaw shut, some accident must have sent me to the hospital. Accident? Yeah, there was an accident, I remember a truck swerving across that icy road and headed right for me. But, why is only my jaw injured? It's a miracle I did survive, but I should be in full traction, after that.'

Looking around for a call button, so he could get some answers he was startled when the room door banged open violently and a large redheaded woman came running in, crying in a loud voice, "Oh, Ronnie, what happened to you! What did these muggles do to you?! Why would they torture you like this? What do they think you'll bite them like some werewolf?"

'Wtf? Muggles? Werewolves? Does this woman think she's in Hogwarts? Wait! Large redhead woman, calls me Ronnie.' He looks at his small 11 year old hands. 'Okay, I'm definitely not 28 anymore. And if I'm this small, named Ron, she talks about muggles, could this be…'

Sure enough she pulls out a wand and changes his clothes from hospital gown to black robes. "Now get up, we need to get you to St. Mungo's for a checkup and to get rid of that contraption before we get you to Hogwarts. You've already missed the sorting." Suddenly her face turns angry, "How dare that little brat do that to us, after all we've done for him! I'll teach him a lesson next time I see him. Get up now."

He decided to stow his confusion for the time being and play along. After all if he really is in the body of Ron Weasley that means he died when that truck hit him, and most likely whatever happened to Ron killed him, otherwise how could he occupy his body? That being the case, he's stuck in this world as Ron which means he gets to live the dream of every nerd back home, going to Hogwarts and learning magic.

Getting a bit excited over the prospect of learning magic, he got out of bed. 'Well, I'm short again' he noticed and gave Mrs. Weasley a 'now what?' look since he can't talk with his jaw wired shut.

Correctly interpreting his glance she reaches out to hold onto his shoulder. "I'll side along you to St. Mungo's then we'll floo to Hogwarts. The aurors already escorted everyone else to St. Mungo's."

What followed then was the singularly worst thing he'd ever felt. However with nothing in his stomach he resembled a cat trying to cough up a hairball. 'Uggh, in the books Harry described it as being forced through a small rubber tube, but that punk didn't mentioned that it felt like a great pressure differential between your front side and back side is responsible for that. No wonder it causes disorientation and vomiting.'

Standing up straight he started to look around the reception and emergency waiting room. It looked similar to the description in the books, rickety wooden chairs, and people who look like the last thing they said before whatever their accident was "Here, hold my beer and watch _this_!"

After straightening up, he and Mrs. Weasley were noticed by the gaggle of redheads in the corner. With cries of 'mum!' and 'Ronnikins!' they descended on the two, firing off so many questions (Ginny and Percy) and jokes at Ron's expense (Fred and George) that it was difficult to keep it all straight.

Percy: "It's obvious that I need to get to Hogwarts immediately to take up my very important prefect duties. When can we leave? And what will be done with that Potter boy that caused all this? It's reprehensible that such a public figure would act in such a way."

Ginny: "Mom, why was Harry Potter angry like that? Is Ron okay? Why is that metal on his face? Can I visit Hogwarts when you go there with the boys? Can I?"

Twins: "Well, looky here George, our brother is sporting the finest muggle wear of the season, it's very becoming!" "Indeed Fred, he's got the look down spot on. Makes his smile shine that it does!" "I'll say, maybe this is a look we can investigate into bringing to the school, after all, so many people need cheering up!"

"Quiet!" Bellowed Mrs. Weasley. "I'm taking Ronnie upstairs to get him healed, and then, yes, Ginerva we'll all go to Hogwarts shortly. Now find a seat and I swear, you better behave or else." Glaring at the twins, Mrs. Weasley dragged him over to the stairs and led him up to the first floor. 'Gotta remember that. Ground floor then first floor on this side of the pond.' Moving over to the closest available green clad healer, he was shoved forward a little forcefully by Mrs. Weasley.

"Healer, look what those muggles did to my Ronnie in their barbaric hospital. They made us miss the first day of school for my babies. I need you to undo whatever they did to him, so we can get him to school."

The person in Ron's body glanced at Mrs. Weasley, thinking how forceful and rude she comes across. 'If she's like this it's no wonder Mr. Weasley doesn't wear the pants in their relationship. Or is it because he's been so wishy washy that she's become like this? Hmm, the world may never know.'

The healer mildly looked at Mrs. Weasley for a moment, before turning his gaze to Ron. "I'm Healer Pye, pleasure to make your acquaintance, um Ronnie. Unfortunately the muggles of course don't have magic to heal things like broken bones or in this particular case it appears to be your jaw. So they end up doing things the slow way. In this case immobilizing the bones to allow them to heal, knitting together so to speak. One moment while I run some diagnostic spells, Mrs..?"

"It's Weasley, of course. Well, whatever the reason, it's barbaric. Just hurry up and heal him so we can get to Hogwarts." Mrs. Weasley rebutted sharply.

Sighing and nodding in acknowledgement Healer Pye had Ron sit at the nearest bed, pulled out his wand, and started casting his diagnostic spells. After a few minutes Healer Pye nodded to himself, turned to Mrs. Weasley and started his explanation. "Luckily it's just a simple break. I'll just cast some simple charms that will knit the bones together and then we'll get rid of the metal locking his jaws together. Just remember to be careful not to get knocked in the jaw for the next two days while the knit is still tender to prevent a re-break."

Healer Pye wasted no time in casting the spells. Once free of the metal lockjaw, the one in Ron's body started opening and closing his mouth, and moving it all around. Feeling no pain he gave Healer Pye and Mrs. Weasley a thumbs up and a quietly mumbled "m'good". He didn't really want to start talking now, because then they'd be all worried about why he suddenly developed an American accent, and instead of headed for Hogwarts, he'd be stuck getting tests. And who knows if there's some Department of Mysteries test that can see he's not the soul of Ron Weasley. Better wait a while and then he can claim someone jinxed him at Hogwarts. Much safer.

Thankfully it went to plan and both adults turned away from him. Healer Pye quickly made out a bill for services rendered. Handing it to Mrs. Weasley he stated, "Here's the bill. You can either pay today on the way out with the cashier, or bring that to Gringotts. They'll make the transfer to St. Mungo's. Thanks and have a safe accident free time." Sending them on their way.

Rejoining the rest of the Weasleys waiting below, they eventually and rambunctiously managed to floo to Hogsmeade and made their way to the Hogwarts gate, where they found Hagrid waiting for them. Apparently Mrs. Weasley had let them know to expect them. Dropping their trunks just inside the entrance they made their way to the great hall.

Since this is a dream come true for many people in his world, the guy who got plopped into Ron's body was rubbernecking like a tourist. When they got to the great hall he noticed breakfast was still going on. Ignoring all the people for the moment, he immediately looked up at the ceiling. Magnificent. The candles weren't evident during the day, apparently. If you looked closely you could see the individual stones outlines, but it was like looking straight up at the sky.

Out of nowhere he heard an enraged harpy shriek, startling the bejeebus out of him. Especially because it came from Mrs. Weasley who was charging at some boy and girl sitting at their breakfast. Just as she came close the girl pulled out her wand, casting a 'Petrificus Totalus'. Mrs. Weasley stiffened like a board and crashed into the table, face planting the porridge.

Out of the corner of his eye he notices Percy with a snarl on his face digging in his robes for something as he started stepping towards the couple that Mrs. Weasley attacked. He half drew his wand before another **PT** came his way. He unfortunately crashed face first into the floor, likely breaking his nose.

At the same time he noticed that like magic the boy's wand was in his hand and two **PT** s were sent to the twins who had also been pulling their wands. They weren't moving forward so when they were hit they first straightened up and then like logs fell, one on his side, one on his back. 'Message received' he thought while carefully keeping his open hands in sight 'pull your wand and get chopped'.

After looking at those on the ground he looked up at the boy and girl, who both had wands covering him. But it was the look in their eyes that made him gulp. The girl was glaring with rage and hate. The boy was icily contemplating, as if pondering where to bury the body. Taking a hold of Ginny's arm, he slowly stepped them a few steps back, to show they weren't going to continue the conflict when suddenly he came to a realization. And swallowed even harder.

The boy had messy black hair, green eyes, and glasses. The girl had wild brown hair, brown eyes, and big front teeth. These were Harry Potter and Hermoine Granger. And they obviously hated him. On the first day of school. This was most definitely not canon. He was in some fanfic. Crap.


	2. Chapter 2

Judging by everything that happened so far, he was in quite a pickle here. He was in Ron Weasley's body in a fanfic where not just him, but the entire Weasley family is hated by Harry and Hermione. This meant one of two things. Dimension travel or time travel, and his bet was on time travel. If they'd just been given information, like in a book or something, they wouldn't have stared at him with such intense hate. That speaks of something they'd personally experienced. In the fictional universes they don't go dark or hateful without good cause so it is likely they were given good cause somewhere. If it was dimension travel, they'd probably reserve judgment until he acted the enemy, but here they already have hate for him. Hence the most likely is time travel.

Looking around the great hall while keeping a hand on Ginny's shoulder he realized that everyone, teachers included, were profoundly shocked by what happened. No one was moving to stop what was happening. 'Okay, everyone needs a reboot before more shit hits the fan, what can I do here?'

After generally assessing the uselessness of everyone in the hall, he glanced at Ginny, and realized she was looking at Hermione in admiration, dare he say, hero worship. 'Odd that, expected she'd have eyes only for the boyo-who-lived. Wait, wasn't there a fanfic where this happened? What did Ron do in that situation? Oh, yeah, he got his ass kicked. Sucks to be me.'

Thinking up to there, he realized that he was on the verge of getting a beat-down. Looking again at Hermione he flinched. If a woman has that much hate in her eyes, there's only one way this will go, especially with that damn green eyed bodyguard she's got. So he prepared to protect the most important part of him, borrowed body or not, and stepped in front of his 'sister' with arms at his sides with palms up, to show he didn't have anything to hide. More importantly he could protect his jewels in an instant.

"So, our family did a fair job of riling you up, but if you notice, me and Ginny here have no notion to attack you, specially as I don't want me balls kicked up around me ears." Malcolm Reynolds, at his finest, thank you sir. "I reckon after the useless adults get their senses back things will come crashing down on you. The whole guilt trip rainbow road. So whatever happens keep in mind that I'd like to have a word with ya'll, after the aftermath of whatever happens here."

Okay, that babble of unexpectedly reasonable words from the mouth of one Ronald Weasley seems to have broken into their impression about him just a little. They looked a bit befuddled to see Ron Weasley, the infamous mouth and douche bag, spout off anything half as intelligent as that instead of charging in or yelling.

Hopefully this will lead the way to them not seeing him as an enemy. Hopefully it would prime them to be receptive for more interaction with him later. Hopefully. Much better than being a ball kickin practice dummy that is available for ball kicks all day long. Anything but ball kicks. Ball kicks. (Just had to mention ball kicks a certain number of times. Ball kicks.)

All of a sudden the professors seemed to wake up a bit from passively watching a show. 'How does that work, they ignore everything until someone wants them to? Seems we need to alert them to this possibility. Especially because they only woke up after I would have already been ball kicked. A must avoid at all costs.' He solemnly vowed to himself.

Snape, looking nearly as red as a ripe tomato, was the first to act, "Twenty points each from Gryffindor and detention every night this week, that also means you lose your privileges for the coming weekend." 'Snape's sadistic smile was prominently displayed. What an ass.'

The one in Ron Weasley's body look at the other teachers and sees they seem to be worn down and accepting of Snape's royal decree. They don't even bother to try to refute it. 'Bunch of slack jawed faggots. If there's one thing the internet taught me is that in a fanfic, the universe bats for Potter 99% of the time. Go against him and you'll eventually get smacked down. The best I can hope for is to be ignored and left out of this.'

Hermione turns to the woman who is handing out class schedules who must be McGonagall. "Who's he, and can he do that?" She demands. Man, if there's one thing obvious about this universe, Potter and Granger are not messing about with being subservient.

Looking a bit embarrassed, McGonagall answers, "That is Professor Snape, head of Slytherin, and I'm afraid he can." Concentrating on the faces and body language of McGonagall, Snape, and Dumbledore, he misses some of the conversation, but he gets a sense of their dynamic. Dumbledore sits back and watches the show until he feels he has to do something. It seems he's shut down McGonagall for so long that she expects anything she complains about to be soundly ignored, and now she hardly bothers. Snape on the other hand positively radiates glee and self importance. Likely anytime someone complains he knows Dumbledore will crush their inquiry, making him untouchable. Meaning he's got an open playing field.

Turning his attention back to what was happening, he heard Hermione say, "Accio Mr. and Mrs. Potter's jackets."

'Okay, looks like they are married at 11 years old. So I'm almost 100% certain I know what fanfic I ended up in. Problem is, I can barely remember what happened in the story, and there's absolutely no guarantee that what was written is what will happen.' He quickly decided it was time to be an audience member at a play and see what happens.

Minerva: "Mr. and Mrs. Potter, can I ask what you are doing?"

Hermione: "We'll take a walk to Hogsmead, should be able to find a public floo there that will allow us to reach the Leaky Cauldron, from there it's a tube and taxi back home! This morning's incident proves beyond doubt we were both lied to, if this is the best magical school then I pity the rest. That poorly disguised attempt to deny us our rights before we've even finished breakfast on our first morning has indicated what we can expect if we stay here, especially since neither our head of house nor the headmaster has spoken a word in our defence."

Dumbledore:"I'm afraid we can't allow you just to walk out of here, as headmaster I act 'in loco parentis' while you are in Hogwarts and don't thing this action is in your best interests."

Hermione: "That is of course correct headmaster but you must also know our marriage negates that clause, or were you just hoping we didn't know that fact. Harry is my husband and head of House therefore 'in loco parentis' doesn't apply here."

Dumbledore: "Mr. Potter wouldn't you rather be at Hogwarts than living with your aunt and uncle?"

Harry: "Oh so you are aware of my living conditions there? I have no intention of returning to that house ever again and will be contacting the ministry to find out why I was left on their doorstep in the first place. If that's how the magical world deals with orphans, then I want nothing to do with it or Hogwarts."

Dumbledore: "Mr. Potter, should you leave Hogwarts this way, it could mean the snapping of your wand and…" Snap! One broken wand, tossed to the ground like trash, perfectly punctuates the statement Harry was giving.

Harry: "Ready to go home Mrs. Potter? You were right we should never have agreed to come here in the first place, the schools abroad look so much better. We'll keep in touch Neville."

And with one last questioning glance at the out of character Ron, the Potters departed from the great hall, leaving chaos in their wake. Molly starts bitching and threatening to kill 11 year old heads of house and wizarding world celebrities. 'Real smart move there Red Flag. Does she want to destroy her family?' That piece of Molly tirade expertly fielded and shut down by the scathing scolding of Minerva got Molly's dander up, but she shut it for now.

And in this confrontation it looks like Deputy Headmistress McGonagall has finally woken up after being snowed by Dumbledore for so many years. It's a beautiful thing to see a Highland woman on a tirade when it's not directed at you.

Snape gets informed that all punishments he hands out will be reviewed. Three strikes and he'll earn himself unpaid suspension for one month and a review by the board. 'Which is a tossup as to if the board will do anything. Between Malfoy's bribes and Dumbledore's asskissers, it'll have to be something pretty bad to get him kicked out. Still, there's hope.'

When Dumbledore tries to placate Minerva she's having none of it and lays down an ultimatum. Either he goes along with her on this, or she resigns. Of course he backs down. He doesn't want to get rid of his deputy that does all his work for him. 'I mean the man has three full time jobs. Either he fobs work off on others, plays with time turners, or just ignores it. Based on the stories, he likes to work through intermediaries and cats paws, so my money is on fobbing off work.'

Of course to save face Dumbledore decides to use the elder wand to repair Harry's wand, getting it snatched out of his hands by Minerva to pass on if they get the Potters back in the castle. 'Nothing like a little show of power to try to convince everyone you're still in charge, even though you just backed down like a bitch. I mean, strategically withdrew.' He inwardly snarked.

Abruptly he froze as something occurred to him. 'On second thought, I better start reigning in my internet cynical comments here. After all, Dumbledore and Snape are powerful wizards and if there's even a grain of truth about their abuse of legilimency, I'm likely to find myself the target of enough obliviations and memory charms to turn into me into Ron Weasley, which is not a good thing.'

Shivers of dread at the thought of personality wipes running down his spine and taking a deep breath, he immediately stopped looking directly at the professor's faces. Turning his eyes down instead, and doing his best to adjust his body language to look like an awkward 11 year, he does his best to think innocent thoughts from here on out.

A moment later he found himself incredibly relieved to have abruptly had that reminder of the mind arts, because he noticed that everyone's attention was on him, looking like they expected something from him. Worried that he may have given something away, he mumble/stammered, "S-sorry, wasn't paying attention. What's the question?"

Professor McGonagall fielded the question, a tad bit exasperatedly, "Sit over here Mr. Weasley. We'll have your sorting, then hopefully" pointed glares around at certain individuals, "we can be finished with all the drama of this morning."

"Yes ma'am." With no small worry about the fall out of having the mind reading sorting hat find out he's not Ron Weasley and start blabbing, he sits himself down at the Gryffindor benches and the hat is placed on his head.

[I'm not in the habit of "blabbing" what I see in people's heads, even to the headmaster. Family heirs come through here, and if I talked, it wouldn't be long before I was destroyed. Since I've been around give or take a thousand years, I'd say I've earned a fair bit of dependability on my word in this matter.] The hat's voice seemed to exude dry amusement.

[Well, thank you for that reassurance. I'm Carl Davis, nice to meet you.] Never hurts to be polite to someone rummaging through your head and who you're depending on to put you in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, preferably Ravenclaw, but definitely not Slytherin. Not Slytherin.

*Cough*Cough* the hat mentally coughed. [Yes well, we'll get to your house choice in a moment. First, let me go through these interesting tales, these fanfics that you've got floating in your head.] He starts laughing. [While you're absolutely correct that being polite to people making decisions on your future is the right decision, it only goes so far, as you suspect. The idea that goblins would be so shocked at a polite wizard that they'd roll out the red carpet is a fanciful bit of fluff, one that I wouldn't recommend mentioning to any goblins. I doubt they would see where the humor lies.]

[I'd suspected as much, wily little bludgers. It's not like there haven't been muggleborn who've been unfailingly polite to them, I'm sure. And the idea that there haven't been any polite wizards in however many years is a bit of a stretch.] It's always fun to debate the logics and plot holes of movies and stories Carl happily thought.

[Indeed. However since our time is limited, I'll give one last piece of advice before we get to your house choice. Do learn occlumency quickly. Now, explain to me your logic in why Ravenclaw.]

[Process of elimination. I saw how much the Potters dislike the Weasley family, and particularly Ron, already. So Gryffindor is right out. Especially if I didn't get a chance to talk to the Potters about my situation before they take action against me. Slytherin is out for a similar reason, namely this body's family and their politics. I really want to learn magic now that I'm here, that's where I want to put my energy and focus, not politics. And the idea of having to dodge hexes and fistfight Malfoy and others all the time, does not appeal.]

[Why fist fights?] Interrupted the hat.

[Well, I'm not positive it would work, but if I got into no holds barred brutal fights every time someone tried to hex me, even if I end up in detention a lot, it would let the bullies know there is a price for their pleasure in tormenting me. Now if they are willing to pay that price is another matter. The thing that worries me is that I may run across some unusually vindictive death eater spawn that would just end up killing me when they couldn't cow or control me. So with the attitude that I would bring to Slytherin I'd be in danger of not surviving. But, hey, thems the breaks.]

[Interesting. Unbowed and unbroken is how you mean to go through life then?]

[Yeah, I mean working out compromises with allies is one thing, but cowering to save your hide or pride is another. There were some things in my previous life that I had no fear about, but some others that I let the fear cripple my decision making process. And if I start out cowering, when will I ever decide enough is enough? It would always be, just a few more days, or wait till graduation, or whatever reason. So I'm going to start how I mean to continue.]

[A wise decision that is difficult to accomplish but worthwhile. Now tell me about why you'd prefer Ravenclaw to Hufflepuff.]

[Well, first off my greatest desire right now is to learn as much magic as I can, not making friends. And that fits in with Ravenclaw. Next reason, in the books there seemed to be a bit of a herd mentality in Hufflepuff. The loyalty ideal was amplified to the point where genuine stupidity was displayed. Granted, that was all from Harry's POV, so I didn't read the rest of the story, but again, distractions and drama that I'd like to avoid. And it's not like I can't still make friends in other houses. So how about it, Ravenclaw please?]

[Very well then young again Carl, your house shall be] "Ravenclaw!" Shouted the sorting hat.

Taking the hat off and looking around he notices surprised looks on everyone's faces. Ron is not exactly known for his wit, something he hadn't exactly considered. 'Wait, is the hat in Professor McGonagall's hands snickering at me?' Then he notices Molly Weasley, red in the face and sucking in air like a turbine. 'Oh no' he groans 'Mount Molly is about to erupt, just what I need now.'


	3. Chapter 3

"Whew! For a second there I thought it was going to put me in Slytherin! Dodged a bullet there!" Ron (better start thinking of myself as the redhead, seeing as that's who I'm stuck as) exclaimed loudly, hoping that if there's anything that can derail the one track mind of Molly Weasley it would be this.

Success. Molly Weasley began coughing, then sputtering, trying to get her mind back on track. The very idea of one of her brood not being Gryffindor is of course an insult, but the very idea of one of them being Slytherin blew her mind. She didn't quite know what to say first, or who to start brow beating.

Of course the Slytherins didn't have their whole world view challenged like Mrs. Weasley did. They knew they'd been insulted, even in so mild a form, and if there's nothing else being a Slytherin in Hogwarts teaches you, it's to never take an insult from anyone else lying down. A chorus of insults rained down on his ears from Slytherin, mainly focused on his family's poor status and how he wouldn't fit in anyway. A few from Gryffindor chuckled at his comment aloud, while others started heckling the Slytherins. 'Guess they figured with all the other chaos of the morning they had a good chance of getting away with getting some zingers in.'

Looking around at the professors, he figures he can get one good zinger in before they shut everyone up. "That's right, looks like you bunch of knobble-gobbers in Slytherin dodged a bullet by me not being sorted in among yeh. I just figure I don't have what it takes to hobnob with the knob-gobs." 'Hehe, thank you Lewis Carroll, it doesn't really have to be a real word, but the sound of the insult should be enough that some of them will understand the meaning.'

After seeing the quirking of McGonagall's lips, the red face of Flitwick, Sprout's slightly disapproving face, and the intensifying glare of Snape shows that the professors are at least on the ball. 'Hmm, maybe that wasn't such a bright idea. I've still gotta take classes with them. Well, it's not like Snape was ever going to be anything but unpleasant to me, based on being a brother of the twins.'

And sure enough Snape snaps at him, "20 points from Gryffindor, and explain your insult Weasley!" 'Okay, Snape maybe cunning but it seems he falls into habits way to easily. I mean, I just got sorted into Ravenclaw. Just because I'm a redheaded stepchild…'

"What insult are you referring to sir?" I innocently respond after a moment's thought.

He sneers. "What you said, knobble-gobber, knob-gob. What does that insult mean you stupid boy!?" Snape sneers some more.

Continuing the innocent act for all he's worth. "Why it's not an insult at all, merely a reference to what must be common practice of many of the upper levels of society. You see I've seen Draco Malfoy always talking about his father, and how important he is in society. Well, his father is always walking around with his cane in hand, his knob if you will. Which is kinda like, what's it called…a status symbol! And because the only thing I've heard about him doing is politics, hence his words are very important to him, you know his gob. So high class people like them always talking politics and walking around with their status symbols in their hands are what I call knobble-gobbers, or knob-gobs for short."

And half of the students are having a hard time breathing, they're laughing so hard. "Walking around with their knobs in hand!" "His knob is his status symbol!" Some of the students were wheezing out in laughter.

"What do you mean Slytherin?!" Shouted out Mrs. Weasley while grabbing Ron's arm. Apparently the laughter was enough of a familiar thing with her prankster twins that it broke her out of her mental fugue. "There's no way you'd be in Slytherin!"

Noticing that McGonagall and Flitwick were badgering Snape about his poor attitude Ron decided to focus on Mrs. Weasley, hoping to be able to convince her to let them stay at Hogwarts. 'Hmm. How to approach this? Maybe explanation of what I think the original Ron's outlook might have been, if he'd ever had the words or self introspection enough to explain it. That will hopefully convince her that we dodged the Slytherin bullet. Worth a shot.'

"Well, mum, there was a chance at it happening. I mean, Slytherins are ambitious, right? Think about what I am in the family. I'm the youngest boy, out of six. We're a poor family, and being the youngest boy I always get hand me downs. I don't always want hand me downs for the rest of my life." Mrs. Weasley looks like she's about to say something about that, so Ron changes what he was going to say first. "It's not like we blame you or dad, that's just the way it is. And we've always had food on the table, so it's not like we have it horrible." At least she's looking thoughtful now; hopefully he's getting through to her. This is his family now, and the tough times are just starting, if things aren't changed.

"And what about my older brothers? Bill was a prefect and Head Boy; got a lot of owls, and now he's a Curse Breaker. Charlie was a prefect, and a legend at quidditch, now he works with dragons. Percy is now a prefect, and he gets near perfect grades. The twins have gone the opposite route, pranking and rule breaking, but they are excellent at it. Most of the time they serve detention I bet it's not that they got caught, it's cause there's no one else to blame, and they are perverse enough I bet they make detentions miserable for whoever holds it so they are still pranking people, which is probably why they don't protest them." Face palm from McGonagall as she sees the light, while the twins high-five each other. "So every which way I could stand out apart from my brothers and be seen as great at something during school has pretty much been taken. I've had plenty of dreams of how to one up them, doing stuff big enough I'd never be in their shadow. If that's not ambition, I don't know what is!"

Taking a deep breath and doing his best puppy dog eyes. 'Hopefully this is not just constipation eyes that I'm doing, would ruin the whole thing.'

"So I want to stay here, even if my place isn't Gryffindor with my brothers. At least with being in a different house I get to stand out a bit!" He finishes his speech to Mrs. Weasley with a smile, hoping he convinced her. And he lucked out. After considering for a while, a bit of intense staring, a few words of encouragement from the various teachers, and they were allowed to stay.

While he was standing there, watching Mrs. Weasley marching out the hall, Professor Flitwick came up to him, handing him a sheet parchment. "Here's your schedule lad. Everyone has the day off to figure out where classrooms are. Classes start tomorrow. Don't be late. And do try to keep your smart comments to yourself. There will be no points off this time, don't expect lightning to strike twice though!" Flitwick cheerfully finished.

Looking around, Ron makes sure that nobody is paying attention to their conversation. Most of the professors having returned to their meal, or in Dumbledore's case left the hall. He returns his attention to the professor. "Thanks Professor Flitwick. I was hoping I could have yours and the Deputy Headmistress's assistance in something first thing after the meal. It really is quite urgent though and shouldn't be put off till later."

Flitwick considered him a moment before responding, "And for what could you need such urgent help with on your first morning here?"

"I don't know if you've heard the actual story about why I was late, but I spent the night in the muggle hospital, and I believe something may have jarred my memory loose. When I woke up, I remember having seen my pet rat Scabbers, the one I got from Percy, turn into a man when he thought none of us were home at the Burrow. He was talking to himself while fixing himself a sandwich in the kitchen about someone coming to Hogwarts this year, and he'd have to keep an eye out. Then he saw me and waved his wand at me chanting 'Obliviate'. And I forgot about it until this morning."

Looking a bit like he didn't believe me, Flitwick hummed. "And why didn't you tell your mother about it this morning? Why wait until now?"

Giving Flitwick a dry look Ron stated, "Have you seen how my mum reacts? She'd start yelling and the rat would make an immediate escape." Seeing the look of understanding, he continued, "I was hoping to convince you and Professor McGonagall to call on Madame Bones and some aurors to check on him, to make sure that it wasn't some weird dream. After all, if this rat person hid among our family since 1982, there's got to be a pretty fair chance the head of the DMLE will want to have a word with him."

"Well, it is a bit unusual for rats to live so long. Hmm, as long as you're serious about this and it's not some prank intended to outdo your prankster brothers on the first day of class." Professor Flitwick looked at me askance. "I do hope you're not, in the vernacular, blowing smoke up my ass Mr. Weasley. I would be very heavy handed with the detentions if this is a false report."

Nodding emphatically he replied "I understand the seriousness of calling on the head of the DMLE, and I wouldn't dare do this for fun. The fun/trouble ratio does not come close to making that worthwhile. Especially when I'll be in your house for the next seven years. Starting off like with a stunt like that would be a very poor choice."

"Very well, Mr. Weasley. Why don't you have some breakfast while I go talk to Professor McGonagall and floo call the DMLE."

As he sat to eat, the boy-now-known-as-Ron 'gah, I even hyphenated that in my head' pondered what he should do in the next few days after getting Pettigrew caught. There are many things he'd like to do, fan fiction clichés, but alas most of them are not available to him. Shopping trips and discovering hidden lordships of 6 houses are definitely only available for Harry Potter in these universes. Even if there were lordships and vaults for the Weasleys, he's just an 11 year old with parents so there'd be no way he could go out on some kind of fan fiction shopping spree. Although, there is one place he can go for something interesting. It remains to be seen just how amazing a place it is though…Hmm, one can only dream.

Ron noticed that Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were headed his way, so he hastily finished the last of his meal, and stood in anticipation of the show to come.


	4. Chapter 4

Ron followed behind Professors Flitwick and McGonagall as they exited the great hall, all the students leaving the hall whispering and pointing at him, wondering what was going to happen next. They'd already made such a spectacle that they were hoping to see more of a show, but their hopes were dashed when the professors shooed them away with stern warnings.

'I'm sure they'll find out all about it by the evening meal, the rumor mill being what it is. If only humanity could harness the rumor mill, faster than light travel would not be just a dream.' He chuckled to himself at his joke. 'Even if the wizards are too daft to keep up with the awesomeness of muggle sci-fi, I'm definitely not limiting myself in this universe *cough* stargate *cough*. And if it's not a cross-over universe with others, I bet I could still build a wizard space ship. It's gonna be so cool!'

As they arrived at the entry hall Ron switched gears from dreaming to serious as he saw the head of the DMLE Amelia Bones and 4 aurors waiting for them in the entry hall. It wouldn't do to miss out on the fun by dreaming of what he could do in a few years. And they looked like this is serious business. It would not do to ruin what credibility he has for being flippant or anything like that.

Looking over the aurors, he immediately noticed the one with scars and a magic eye, Alastor Moody. 'And it looks like he hasn't lost his leg yet. Maybe that happens in the next couple years? That's right, Tonks graduates this year and she's supposed to be his last newbie if I remember right. Interesting what gets put in the books and what doesn't.' Ron feels a cold shiver down his back. 'It's a good reminder that although it was fiction in my previous life, here it's my real world with consequences and danger. I can't let up on being vigilant, even if I can't do much at the moment to protect myself.'

With his resolve to learn and become a great wizard a little more firm, he looked at the rest of the aurors as introductions were being passed between the professors and aurors. A physically imposing large black auror was introduced as Kingsley Shacklebolt. 'Holy cow, the movie didn't get it right, this guy is more Michael Clarke Duncan than George Harris!' Ron exclaimed in his mind, impressed the physical presence of the Shack.

The last two aurors were introduced as John Dawlish and John Williamson. Dawlish looked a bit smarmy, like he's got a mouth and a thinks a great deal about himself, while Williamson looked average, except for the pony tail he was rocking.

After introductions Madame Bones asked them to guide them to the correct room where Ron's stuff was put. 'I'm guessing they already explained it over the floo, else why would Bones bring four aurors, and two of them Moody and Shacklebolt. Looks like they took my story seriously, good.' And they set off for Ravenclaw tower. 'Gotta love the efficiency of house elves. Everyone's gear gets put into their rooms before the meal is even over.'

As they were climbing the stairs he was being questioned by Moody about the rat. "How long have you had him?" Moody gruffly asked.

"I've only got him this year, but Percy's had him since he was 5. I think Percy found him December of 1981 is what I heard, which is why they let him keep him, kind of as a Christmas gift." At this answer the aurors started looking at each other with questions and suspicion in their eyes. Christmas of 1981, the rat could be a death eater, the timing would be right. But the rat's been with them this long and hasn't done anything? Hasn't come out of hiding to live a normal life? This is strange.

"How does the rat usually act?" "He's really lazy, you hardly ever see him moving on his own. Usually only when it's meal time he gets up and wanders around a bit to get some food."

"So where is he likely to be in your room?" "Percy usually left him sitting on his bed, when he wasn't carrying him around in a pocket. I kept him in his cage, but I've no idea if he's in it now. We never had to lock the cage, because he was so lazy, so he could get out easy."

After a few more questions to him and to Professor Flitwick about the rat and the layout of the rooms, which turns out are much better than Gryffindor, since he'll only have one roommate, instead of four or more. 'I mean, really with space expansion charms the only reason we don't all have our own room is some adult nonsense about how we need to learn to get on with our peers and socialization and what have you. What a load of BS. Ignore the fact that this is a boarding school where we will get more than enough socialization throughout the year. In my opinion neighbors get on the best when there are clear property lines acknowledged by all. When everyone has their own territory where they can enjoy being themselves without the judging eyes of their peers, then there can be harmonious relations. Whatever, I don't get to make these decisions now, no need to worry about it.'

By this time they had arrived at the bottom of a spiral staircase leading up the tower, which was wide enough for four at the same time. After climbing 5 floors, they came to a large wooden door with no handle or keyhole. A bronze eagle knocker the size of a basketball was in the middle of the door. The eagle opened its beak and asked for a password, which Professor Flitwick provided as 'Wit in every measure'.

Looking around at the Ravenclaw common room Ron admitted to himself he was impressed. The ceiling was high for a common room at 12 feet, and the windows were quite large at 6 feet by 4 feet, giving the whole room the airy feel that it was described as having. The blue and bronze was interesting. Most of the rugs and couches were different patterns of blue, with bronze highlighting the blue. He could also see several nooks that seemed to be filled with bookshelves. 'He he, looks like I chose the right house. No politics, no overly friendly people getting in my business, and I get to learn magic. Hahaha! Awesome!' Ron gloated to himself a bit.

Professor Flitwick gave directions to the aurors then came to stand with Madam Bones, Professor McGonagall, and Ron to wait for the aurors to do their job. Ron turned to Professor Flitwick and asked, "Professor, can I ask, I had heard that Ravenclaw had to answer a riddle to enter the tower, but it asked for a password. Was that because you're a professor, or will the students get in with a password too?"

Professor Flitwick looked startled for a moment, then a bit sheepish as he answered, "Apologies Mr. Weasley. Usually the fifth year prefect will pass that information to all the new students when they guide them to the tower for the first time. In all the excitement I forgot that you missed out on that last night. Yes, it only requires a password to enter for all Ravenclaws, students and professors alike. I'll have to remind the prefects to give you the orientation later tonight, including a little map to make it easier on you to find your classes."

After pausing a moment Professor Flitwick continued, "Ah, yes the riddles. A couple years before I was made the Head of Ravenclaw the previous Head somehow got it into his head that since he was a Ravenclaw, and felt himself clever, it was incumbent on him to make all the Ravenclaws clever too. And he felt his cleverness stemmed from his love of riddles and puzzles. So he spent the next couple years compiling all the riddles he could find. Next he charmed the knocker to ask the riddles and not let anyone in who couldn't answer on the first try. This lasted for about two years while he was planning on instituting something similar with the bookshelves in the common room and everyone's individual room, but with puzzles and other such things. Before he could accomplish it he passed on."

"I became the head of Ravenclaw, and I must say, it's likely he passed on to avoid all the complaints. After all, many students were locked out of the common room for hours or even days. There were so many riddles and some were quite obscure so it would sometimes take days to find the answer. And during this time the students had to come up with a rotating schedule so there was always someone in the common room to let someone in when they couldn't answer the riddle. It didn't fully solve the problem, because when he heard what the students were doing to avoid his riddles he'd periodically come to the common room to chase them all out." Sighing and shaking his head Flitwick continued. "The man had gone senile. It caused so many problems and issues with the students studying and class attending that the moment I was made Head I immediately changed it back to a password. I also wrote down the whole fiasco in detail, to be passed on to every future Head of Ravenclaw so hopefully there won't be other so called 'brilliant ideas' that get implemented without considering the consequences."

By the end of the story Ron's mouth was hanging open in shock. He felt a bit more respect for Professor Flitwick. Closing his mouth and swallowing he proclaims, "For the record, I'm glad you're our Head of House!"

Chuckling with big grin, "Thank you Mr. Weasley, your vote of confidence warms my heart."

'This professor seems to be a doer. That probably explains why he was such a good dueler.' Once he sees a problem, he takes action to fix it. That would also likely explain why he was so willing to go out on a limb and call the aurors just on Ron's story. After all, he identified a problem and went into action mode.

Problem: A student's pet is an animagus or a student is pulling a prank.

Solution: Call the aurors and catch the animagus or expose the prank.

Result: Animagus caught, students are safe or punishment rained down on the pranking student.

'It's all win-win for the professor, and a problem is taken care of. In fact, now that I think of it, he doesn't even go out on a limb for this. Everything is on me if anything goes wrong. And I'm sure all this already went through Flitwick's head during our conversation. Huh, what was that phrase, the older the ginger is the spicier it is. I've still got lots to learn.' His mouth suddenly dry, he started to breathe deeply to steady himself. 'I sure hope Pettigrew is up there. Maybe I should have checked before starting this. Ugh. I was fine just a moment before and now I'm so nervous. If Pettigrew isn't there for whatever reason I'm never going to hear the end of this from everyone. And Flitwick won't trust me ever again. Calm down. I'm sure he's there. Just a few more minutes.'

After pumping himself up with some more words of encouragement, Ron turned to look at the stairway expectantly. He gave a huge sigh of relief when he saw the aurors coming down with a floating unconscious man shackled up in front of them.

Professor McGonagall on the other hand gasped quite loudly and exclaimed, "Why that's Peter Pettigrew! But he's supposed to be dead, killed by Sirius Black. If he's alive, then that means-"

"That means we've got a lot of work to do to figure out what really happened back in '81" interrupted Madam Bones sternly, giving them all a deep stare.

Moody piped up at this point, "It might be even more explosive than you think; we found two wands on him. One of them was His. So we'd better keep this quiet until after the investigation, or you know all the politicians will jump on this, muddying up the waters. Not to mention his death eaters. Sorry, I meant "imperious victims"." You could actually hear the quotation marks, and it was a surprise rainbow colored sarcasm wasn't actually dripping out of his mouth.

Thinking deeply for a moment Madam Bones sharply nodded her head and started issuing orders. "Right, you four are to escort this person to a safe house 13B. Talk to no one, send no messages. Sit tight at the safe house until I contact you. If any of you mess this up, not only are you out of the aurors, I will do everything I can to see you in Azkaban, and not as a guard, am I clear?" She barked a question.

"Yes ma'am" sounded from four throats.

"Professor Flitwick, thank you for bringing this to our attention." Madam Bones continued, looking Professor Flitwick in the eyes. "We need to get this man off the grounds without him being seen. Any suggestions?"

"Cover him with a cloth and drag him to my office, it's the closest floo." He promptly replied.

"Thank you, we'll do that." After Professor Flitwick and the aurors left Madam Bones turned to Ron, she momentarily frowned then said "Mr. Weasley, thank you for bringing this to your professor. This man has wronged your family, and if you want justice you're going to have to keep quiet. Don't tell anyone, not even your family until I have a chance to talk to them, is that understood?" She sternly questioned him.

"Yes ma'am. I want him to get what's coming to him, so I'm keeping my mouth shut." I firmly reply, trying to convey through my eyes I understood the need to keep my gob shut. "Ma'am, if I might make a suggestion?" Gaining her assent I continued, "With whom this person is and who it concerns, it might be a good idea to go see Harry Potter before doing anything else. This concerns him deeply, and you know he'll be dragged into this mess anyway. Who knows, he might have an idea or suggestion about what to do. Or at least be able to use his celebrity as the boy who lived to help you in your investigation. Just a thought."

Giving me a brief nod she turned to Professor McGonagall and asked for her to find Harry they'd meet in her office, at which point Professor McGonagall turned all kinds of interesting colors, then sighed, telling Madam Bones it wouldn't be possible. "Why not?"

Jumping back into the conversation Ron answered, "There were some problems this morning. Unfortunately my mum overreacted to some things and tried to assault Harry Potter. It's going to be quite the problem for my family. I expect we'll be in for hard times for a bit, and I'm kind of hoping that getting ahead of this problem will earn us some leniency long term." At Madam Bone's questioning look, Ron explained the scene at breakfast, and continued "There's no doubt in my mind he'll press charges and send an article to the press about it. Best you hear from him about the whole issue, and talk to him about your prisoner first. You can always come back to us later. But getting in front of this will be a way to control what happens instead of going for a ride."

Madam Bones and Professor McGonagall gave Ron funny looks. 'It is a bit out of character for an 11 year old giving political advice to adults, but whatever. If I want to effect change I can't be faffing about, trying to role play bloody Ron Weasley' Ron snorted to himself.

After a few more warnings of what not to do by both Madam Bones and Professor McGonagall, Ron was left alone in the Ravenclaw common room. After giving a huge sigh and a pat on his back for a successful venture, before Ron could go anywhere he heard a loud DING!

[User has successfully changed the destiny of Ron Weasley, unlocking the system function. Binding to user's soul is about to commence, user is suggested to sit down. Starting binding in 3].

"Wait, what!?" Exclaimed Ron loudly.

[2]

"Wait a moment!" Ron looked around frantically.

[1]

Blackness covered Ron's eyes as he fell unconscious, falling to the floor.

* * *

When Ron woke up from his forced slumber 15 minutes later, before opening his eyes he saw what looked like a gaming message screen, light blue background, black letting, and bronze colored frame.

[Congratulations on changing your destiny user. System has successfully bound itself to user. User can access menu by mentally saying "Menu". To close this message simply think "close message" or just will it closed.]

Of course Ron knew what a system was, he'd read some novels about it. But it doesn't prepare you to suddenly have voices in your head and he can't believe he'd acted in such a cliché fashion. 'It's only been a day since you've reincarnated into a new body, it'll take a bit to get used to unusual circumstances. Anyway, no one saw you freaking out like a spaz.' He consoled himself. Realizing that he was still sprawled on the floor, he opened his eyes and the message screen faded away to nothing. Startled he started looking around frantically for a moment. Suddenly snorting at his stupidity he closed his eyes, and the message screen came back into his vision.

Nodding to himself at successfully figuring it out quickly he opened his eyes again and got up and climbed the stairs to his room. No need to go browsing his system out where he can be interrupted. Opening his door he saw pairs of beds, desks, chairs, etc. Figuring out which side of the room was his only took a moment, then lay on his bed and closed his eyes, preparing to figure out just what he had gotten with this system.

Closing the previous message window, another one popped up before he could do anything.

 **RULES OF THE SYSTEM**

1\. The system is a tool.

a. The system is not in charge. The user is in charge of their life.

b. The system is not the protagonist. The system is not the antagonist. The system is not a companion for the user.

c. The system does not "move the plot" by making quests for the user. Random quests that pop up forcing the user to do outlandish stuff is not "good story", incredibly frustrating, and often counter to the goals of the user.

d. The system is not an FAQ. The user must find their answers in the real world.

2\. The system works on equivalent exchange.

a. The system awards System Points (SP) based on user's actions, quests, and anything sold to the store.

b. Effort must be put into user's actions to award points. Example: User memorizing a mathematical formula is awarded points. User looking at each page of a book without reading or retaining the information is not awarded points.

c. The user can make quests that reward additional SP. Essentially the user makes a goal for their life and completes it and the system rewards user for their will and determination to accomplish their goals.

3\. The quality tier of available purchases in the Point Store must be earned.

a. User can purchase skills, items, physical enhancements, spiritual enhancements, space storage, etc. in the Point Store.

b. The more of a certain action user performs, the higher the tier the user unlocks. A 90 pound weakling will not have the physique to handle being turned into a Super Saiyan, that power would explode their body. Someone who has never trained their mind would become retarded if they tried to levitate a car.

4\. The cost of items in the store increase when used on anyone other than the user.

a. The system is bound and attuned to the soul of the user, resulting in a discount.

b. The system is not responsible for negative effects of using items on someone other than user who is not prepared for the quality of the item.

c. There are purchasable items to test for fitness of using an item on someone other than the user. The system is still not responsible for negative effects of using items on someone other than the user.

Thinking about these rules he sighed in relief. This actually didn't sound half bad. A lot of the systems in some of those novels seemed to basically be the master directing what their puppet would do. This sounded more like just a storefront. He could work with that. Closing that window, he thought [Menu]. He got a screen that showed [Status], [Store], [Quest], [Help]. Clicking on the [Help] he got a repeat of the rules screen. Snorting to himself sarcastically, 'Yeah, that was helpful.' He selected [Status].

* * *

Name: Ron Weasley

Age: 11

Race: Human

Bloodline: Wizard

Cultivation Method

Body Cultivation: None

Energy Cultivation: None

Soul Cultivation: None

Stats

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 8

Constitution: 9

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Charisma: 7

* * *

As he looked at his status screen he noticed a couple of things. First was that being a wizard was a bloodline, which meant those pureblood wizards were half right, blood was important in order to be a wizard. But then that should mean that muggleborn are wizards to and shouldn't be discriminated against. 'Whatever, it's always about wealth anyway. Who gets control of the resources. If you're unscrupulous scum you can convince a bunch of idiots to give you control of the resources by shutting out large portions of the population. Story of the human condition. It'll never change. If someone comes along and tells you otherwise, ask them how they're gonna do it. The answer will inevitably be "If we're in charge we can make it fair." Which turns into, "When I'm in charge." That's exactly what Riddle did with the Pure Bloods, and look how bloody that turned into.' Ptui ptui, spitting to the side to get the nasty taste of politics out of his mouth he continued exploring his system.

He figured since he knew a bit about D&D it gave his stats in those ratios, meaning average human adult stats would be 10. Since he's 11 and a wizard he figured he got a boost to constitution and intelligence and wisdom. Since he's an ugly red head he figured he got a negative to his charisma. 'I'm sure there are plenty of hawt redheads, I'm just not one of them at the moment.' He consoled himself, thinking he'll get there one day.

Moving on, he opened the [Store], and saw [Points: 0], [Buy], [Sell], [How to earn points]. 'Damn, shouldn't I get something like a beginner's pack, or at least a bunch of starter points?'

Suddenly a message window popped up: [The system itself is your starter pack. Don't be greedy user.]

Quickly closing that window and thinking that whoever created this system sure has a sense of humor, an annoying sense of humor. 'Probably likes puns because they annoy people. What an ass.' Sighing he selected [How to earn points], and got a long list. 'Let's see, doing 100 pushups or sit-ups, 10 pull-ups, 3k run will get me 1 point. Read a book will earn 1-3 depending on the topic. Memorizing formulas, theories, practicing problems related to those get 1-3. Meditating for an hour gets me 1-3 depending on the quality of meditation?'

Continuing to scan the list he saw he'd get points for learning and practicing different skills. Even public speaking would get him points, depending on how good the speech was, length, and how much it captivated the audience. He could even sell things to the store, like his potions he'd be making in class, or herbs he gathers, animal carcasses, all kinds of things could be sold to the store the only caveat was that it had to be his property. 'Hmm, possession is 9/10th of the law, right, if no one knows who has it. Alternatively there is the Room of Requirement, lots of lost and found there. Bingo!'

He selected the [Buy] to browse what was available, and the first thing he notices is that he can purchase and inventory to store things and in order to sell stuff he needs to have an inventory to sell from. Grrr. Thankfully it's only 10 points to start with. He was going to get started on some exercise routine anyway might as well start now. He can also start reading some of his magic books. He's determined to get that inventory by tomorrow so he can visit the RoR after class. Browsing in the [Buy] section can wait until after he's got his inventory.

Sighing he closes the menus and gets started with the pushups. No way can he do 100 at one time, but maybe they don't have to be consecutive? One hour later after doing a set of pushups, sit-ups, squats, lunges, and burpees, he's halfway to his goal and realizes the set doesn't have to be in one go, but he can't do it half heartedly. He doesn't have a definitive answer, but it seems this is the way the system is using to prepare his body, mind, and spirit for further upgrades. Exercise, learning, and meditation seem to correspond to these three.


	5. Chapter 5

Collapsing on his back in his room after his work out Ron gave himself a high five for gathering the 10 SP needed to purchase the first tier of inventory from the system store. He felt pretty good, even though this body is out of shape, it seems being a wizard with magic running through the body gives some good benefits such as increasing the speed at which he recovers from exercise.

Then there's the increased intelligence and wisdom. As an 11 year old boy it seems like his thought process isn't much different than when he was an adult before coming here. And since 10 intelligence is supposed to be an average adult human, it makes sense that he would be about the same.

'Well, time to purchase that inventory.' [Menu] he thought. And then he stopped and stared at the menu for a bit. He had totally forgotten to explore the quest option in the menu in his haste to get his points for the inventory. Cursing himself for his impulsivity, he mentally commanded [Quest]. In his vision appeared an empty quest log screen. At the top were the options [New Quest], [Current Quest], [Completed Quest].

[New Quest] he mentally clicked. At the top of the new quest screen was a box to name the quest. Below that was another box for describing the goals of the quest, but next to it was a drop box. Clicking on that showed a list of all the activities previously listed in the shop that would earn SP. 'So it seems that I can either write the goal I wish, or select it from the drop box.'

Below the goals for the quest was a box for time frame that he could write out. Next to that was a drop box that when clicked on showed that he could select the time frame in increments of hours, days, weeks, or even years. On that same list he saw he could set the quest as a daily quest, weekly, monthly, etc.

Below the time frame for the quest he saw [Bonus points earned for completing quest: 0]. He couldn't write on that one. Thinking that it will be filled when he fills in the rest of the quest information, Ron decides to fill in a daily quest for exercising. In the quest goals he selects 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10k run. When he finishes filling that out he notices the bonus points go to 6. So it will double the amount of points he earns from the workout itself.

At this point Ron face palms. 'I could have gotten all the points needed for my inventory with half the work. So dumb. Whatever, I just need to remember to set some quests so the things I was planning on doing anyway will give me more points. It's not like I wasn't planning on working out. Like Maka Albarn said "A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body." And of course the idea that the stronger the body, the more magic it can contain. Riddle supposedly did all those rituals to get strong magic, but he was also supposed to be wicked fast, which means he probably had a strong body from those rituals. And Dumbledore was supposed to be really spry for an old guy, which makes you wonder if he and Grindlewald did some rituals back then. *shudder* All right, brain bleach time. Now let's see about these so called quests.'

Thankfully because of the magic coursing through his body he was able to get through the exercises quicker than he thought he would with his weak body, so he decided that he'd first go get some lunch, then find the Room of Requirement to get some materials to sell, as well as test his theory on what he could do with it. Depending on the results of his RoR visit, he might need to visit the library for a specific book, if they have it. If they don't, well, he'd figure something out.

'First though, a quick shower.' Ron declared to himself as he opened his trunk to sort through whatever he'd inherited from one Ron Weasley and his family. The first thing he noticed was how damn messily his trunk was packed. When he opened the lid, some books, quills, and individual socks fell out. Everything was a mess. The clothes weren't folded, taking up much more space than they needed to. Books were just thrown in, not stacked, again taking up a bunch of room. Sigh. 'Okay, I'm only going to spend 15 minutes to at least stack the books and organize the clothes. I'm not folding them up for now, but at least that way everything will be in its own section and I won't have to take everything out in order to find something. No wonder Ron and Hermione had problems getting along. Diametrically opposed forces must clash.'

Spending the least amount of time possible to segregate his luggage, he found his toiletry, and went to take a shower. Despite the nicer two occupant rooms there seemed to still be only one bathroom per floor. Ron was thankful that it was one per floor, and not one for the whole of the male dorms. Finishing up as quick as he could he took his book bag with just the books for classes on his schedule for tomorrow so that if he ends up in the library after his visit to the RoR he can read a few chapters ahead before tomorrow's classes.

Earlier when he had been following the professors up to the tower Ron had done his best to remember the path from the great hall to the tower. Even though he had some uncertainties a couple times, he just asked the paintings for directions, and it worked well enough. He'd seen older students wandering around, but felt a bit more confident in the directions given by the paintings than some random students. After all, he did have the Hells Carrots as his brothers, and who knows if some of these students might feel like they were getting some amount of misplaced payback by giving him bogus directions. It seemed best just to avoid that possibility altogether.

When Ron arrived at the hall for lunch he noticed it seemed only half full of students, seems many of them were still roaming around. He made his way to the professors table, in front of Professor Flitwick who was in discussion with the other three heads of house. Pausing their discussion, Professor Flitwick greeting him. "Hello again Mr. Weasley, what can I do for you?"

"Hello Professor. I was hoping you could direct me to the prefect you mentioned would have that map for me? So I could get familiar with where my classes are before tomorrow." Ron replied politely.

Looking at the Ravenclaw table for a moment, Professor Flitwick indicated a teen with brown curly hair. "Miss Clearwater there is the fifth year prefect. She should have the map, or be able to make you a copy."

Nodding and thanking the professor Ron walked up near the indicated girl, who was in conversation with a couple girls who didn't notice him approaching so he was able to overhear some of their conversation. From the sounds of it, Percy had been trying to get closer to her last year, and when he'd gotten his prefect badge had written to ask her to be his girlfriend, but after his display today there was no way they were going to date. 'Hmm, seems the reason Percy and Penelope didn't marry in the original work is that Percy doesn't have a romantic bone in his body. I mean, asking a girl to be your girlfriend by letter? Really? I know you can't apparate at 15 but at least have the balls to take the knight bus to meet up with her. Some people…'

At this point the girls noticed him, and quickly cut off their conversation, while Penelope flushed a little in embarrassment at having been caught badmouthing Ron's brother. In order to change avoid that little landmine, he played like he hadn't heard anything at all.

"Hi, are you Miss Clearwater?" He asked brightly, trying to play the innocent firsty.

"Yes, I'm Penelope, what can I do for you?" she responded a little warily, while the blond and black haired girls she'd been talking with started whispering amongst themselves.

"Professor Flitwick told me you were one of the fifth year prefects that had maps for the first years, and could give some orientation that I missed out on last night since I missed it. So I was hoping I could get the map now so I can figure out how to not get lost tomorrow." Ron casually stated, ignoring her wariness.

"Oh! Sure, I've got one here in my bag, half a moment." She responded, fishing out a parchment from her bag and handing it to Ron and he gave thanks in return. As he was turning to leave she said, "Wait a second, can you not tell Percy what we were saying? I'm not interested, but I don't really want to hurt his feelings or anything." She finished awkwardly.

"No problem, it's not my business who he files boyfriend application paperwork with anyway. Seriously, couldn't even bother to use the knight bus to go ask, had to send a letter? I'd say he's hopeless. Your secret is safe with me. Ladies." Giving a cheeky grin and nod, he walked off to the sound of giggles.

Sitting further down the table to grab some grub he was halfway through his meal when two people practically leaped into the seats on either side of him, squishing him in between them. Using twin speak to host a tennis match Gred and Forge started questioning him. {An: I'm not going to be breaking up their twin speak into different lines, I find that annoying when reading it.}

"Well, our dear brother, what have you been up to? Going off with two professors and the head of the DMLE! Were you caught with extra naughty contraband? And why didn't you share such lovely goods with your dear, handsome, charismatically, dramatic brothers?"

Pausing a moment to think of what he wanted to say, Ron casually stated, "Nah, contraband can't be contraband if everyone knows about it or can find it so easily on the first day." Pausing for a moment in consideration he continued, "It's definitely important, but not something I can talk about here. Let me finish up my meal then if we can find an empty classroom or something I'll tell you what I can."

Leaning back so they can get eye contact with each other behind Ron's back they decided to play along for now. The unspoken threat being if they didn't find the news important enough for the extra cloak and dagger routine they'd pay him back. Finishing up the rest of his food the three stood up and marched out of the hall.

They found an empty class on the second floor. After asking if they knew any spells yet to make sure no one overheard them, which of course they did and used, he prepared to tell them about Pettigrew.

Ron had considered keeping it to himself like he'd promised Madam Bones, but as he thought about it more, he realized something. He was a Weasley now. Even if he doesn't have Ron's memories, that's who he is. And the only people in this world that would stand on his side are his family.

The best that could be expected from the DMLE is impartiality. The DMLE would do their job by upholding the law. And because of what the Weasley Matriarch had done to the Boy-Who-Lived this morning he knew that both his dad and his oldest brother would be losing their jobs. They'd lose the Burrow, and have to get jobs as menial workers, barely scraping by.

The usual protagonist of this world, Harry Potter, had just time traveled from a future where the Ron Weasley he knew had raped his wife, Hermione. Ron's family along with the other pure blood Nazis sentenced them to death by Dementor's Kiss. So there really wouldn't be clemency from them until the Weasleys prove they've changed their spots. They've got a lot of anger right now; expecting them to be on his side is just ludicrous.

Dumbledore will bend over backwards to get the BWL back into Hogwarts, so he'd cut adrift the Weasleys in a heartbeat. No, the only people he could rely on were his new family and his own abilities. And right at this moment his abilities are a big fat zero. The only thing he's got is a very little bit of future knowledge, that will be practically worthless after a couple of days.

In this situation, what's the best thing to do? Informing your allies so they can hunker down to weather the storm sounds about right. Who are his allies that he can reach at this moment? The twins and Percy. There's no way he's going to trust sensitive information to an owl. The professors wouldn't let him floo his Dad, to keep him from talking about Pettigrew. Percy worships the bureaucracy too much; he'd want to go through official channels, or at least trust that the "process" would work. So the best people to talk to were the twins who would break the rules for a lark, let alone to get something done that needs to be done to protect the family.

With all these thoughts in mind, Ron turned to Fred and George with as serious a look as he could muster. "There are two big things right now in the wind. First thing is what happened this morning, with mum attacking Harry freaking Potter and his wife. This is the biggest thing for us at the moment."

"What do you mean it's big for us? They didn't even get hurt, we all got petrified, but nothing happened to them." They replied.

"Yes, they didn't get touched, but everything as a whole that happened digs a deep ditch for us, because of who he is. He's the Boy-Who-Lived. Where has he been for the last 10 years?" Ron started off with this question to set the ground for the whole scenario.

"No one knows, it's all gossip, unless you think those books are true!" They laughed.

"Right, exactly. He's the BWL, the great hero who stopped You-Know-Who. He hasn't been in the wizarding world for 10 years. No one really knows what's happened to him. So that means that everyone is REALLY curious. Now this hero is making his way back into the wizarding world and right when he's about to get onto platform 9 ¾, what happens? He's assaulted and manhandled by some random witch. He makes it through that, but then the next day as he's sitting down to breakfast with his longtime friend and soul bonded wife, that same witch attacks him in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. How did she get in to assault him?"

"After the altercation where none of the professors of Hogwarts helps him, they even berate him, and tell him he shouldn't do anything when he's being assaulted in the safest place in magical Britain. It gets to the point where even Dumbledore isn't helping him, so he snaps his wand and walks. The greatly anticipated BWL is hounded out of the wizarding world and it's all started by one overbearing witch. Now if this story gets printed in the paper tomorrow, what do you think the reaction of the wizarding world will be to the people who hounded their hero out of the wizarding world?"

At this question the twins looked at each other, the awareness of just how big of a deal this really is evident in their faces. They looked back at Ron, who nodded gravely. "Yup, now, I can't tell you how I know this part, but all those books written about him were fairy tales. The truth is that he's been living with his muggle relatives all this time. The thing is, he's been treated like a house elf. Starved, overworked, beaten, berated. So he hasn't been living the life of a prince or a hero. Now in this story that will be in the papers, not only does he get a shit reception back to the wizarding world, he's found out he's some kind of celebrity to the wizarding world. But the catch is, they've abandoned their hero to a life of abuse and slavery. So why should he give a toss about the wizarding world of Britain that abandoned him to that life?"

Pausing a moment to let them realize just how big of a deal this is turning out to be, he then continued in a somber voice. "Now all he has to do is suggest that he's looking for alternatives to living in the country that abandoned him. Like Australia or Canada. Now what do you think wizarding Britain will do to keep him here? What do you think they'll do to the family that hounded him out of Hogwarts and made him feel unwelcome? Yup, at the very least Dad and Bill are going to lose their jobs. We're going to receive the anger of the wizarding world for a while. It's going to be tough."

"And a bigger problem for us, is that mum probably isn't going to tell dad any of what happened, so it's going to be a surprise for him tomorrow. He won't know what's going on or how to react, because mum probably also thinks what happened this morning is no big deal because no one got hurt."

George and Fred looked back and forth between each other and Ron. At this point the twins abandoned their twin speak, this wasn't the time to be joking. George, his voice croaking, asked "So, since you seem to know what's going on, what can we do about it now? I mean, we're stuck here."

Humming thoughtfully, Ron carefully asked, "Are we though? I've heard tales that you know how to sneak out. Is it true?"

"We might have found some ways to sneak out, why?" Fred replied.

"Usually I wouldn't suggest doing something like this, because you'd likely get caught, but what if you snuck out, took the knight bus to the burrow tonight and explained to dad what's really happening, avoiding mum of course. That way at least he'd be prepared for the fallout."

"Why not just send an owl?" Fred again.

"Because of the second piece of news that I'm going to tell you and how dangerous it is. But before I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone but dad, and don't let him tell mum either. Mum can't keep her temper, and when she gets going, who knows what will come out of her mouth. This second piece of news is only so dad can be ready."

After getting their promises, Ron revealed what he knew about Pettigrew, and that the DMLE have him in a safe house until they can get Sirius Black a trial. He then went on to explain to them about how the politicians would jump in, muddying the waters, especially Malfoy, would not want to see Sirius Black get the trial he'd deserve. If that didn't keep his dad's mouth shut about the whole thing, then nothing would. But keeping his allies, his family (or at least the part that could handle the news without blabbing it everywhere) informed so they could prepare took precedence over having some kind of stupid loyalty to the government or Harry Potter just because he's the main character of some books.

After planning a bit more they broke up to go their separate ways. The twins left to prepare for their great escape; Ron to go find the RoR. Maybe he'd keep something nice for the twins, since they were probably going to be in a great deal of trouble over this for some time if they were caught.

* * *

Arriving in front of the tapestry of ballerina trolls Ron paused to put in mind what he wanted from the RoR. Pacing back and forth three times a door materialized on the wall opposite the tapestry. Giving a sigh of relief at the good sign of the door appearing for his request he hoped it would work all the way. Turning the handle he entered the room and laughed aloud in joy at the sight.

Ron was standing at the entrance of the room that was a cube, thirty feet on a side and thirty feet tall. Directly across from him was a giant modified Redbox style vending machine. This vending machine was at least fifteen feet tall. It had an 18" touch screen on the left side. Next to the touch screen was the "vending" opening that was nine feet wide and nine feet tall. Carefully closing the door behind him to make sure it was shut Ron walked up to the touch screen.

Touching the screen to navigate, he selected the Room of Requirement's inventory. A list of everything in the lost and found of the RoR was displayed. Doing a search for wands he found a list of 83 wands. He couldn't help but shiver a bit. His guess was correct, but it didn't comfort him. It actually scared him a bit. The only reason these wands would be here in the lost and found is if their owners didn't need them anymore. So there were at least 83 witches and wizards who died on Hogwarts grounds in such a way that they left behind all their belongings and the elves threw their stuff in here. 'Safest place my arse' Ron sarcastically commented to himself. 'Well, their loss is my gain, hopefully.'

Selecting all the wands, he pressed the button to vend. Of course he's not going to ask for a vending machine that asks for actual money. Looking to his right, he saw a pile of loose wands laying there. Sighing to himself in exasperation, he sweeps them all off the vending area in a pile. He goes back to the touch screen and searches for a table. Right before he touches the vend button, he pauses, thinks for a second and backs away from the vending machine. Turning to face the right wall he concentrates for a moment and a table waist high and eight feet long appears along the wall.

Smiling slightly to himself, Ron begins to pick up the wands one at a time and giving them a wave. After giving them a wave he places them in one of three piles on the table, separated by how good of a match they feel on the wave. No resonance to poor match, decent, and excellent. Two of the wands he decides to place directly in his pocket, they felt so good.

Nodding in satisfaction for having found better matching wands than the one he arrived with that's worn to the point of having the unicorn hair poking out of it. 'Seriously, what was Charlie doing with his wand? Going around finding creatures to poke? Poke poke. All seven years, instead of casting he was poking things. Pfft, totally not a sexual reference, nope nope.'

Going back to the vending machine, he thought for a moment before searching for books. Seeing a huge list which included many textbooks he decided to refine the search. Entering in the subject of the book he wanted, he saw there were three of them. Clicking on one of them Ron watched in anticipation as it appeared. Picking it up contemplatively he walked to the door. Concentrating on what he wanted, the door and wall in front of him turned translucent, like a one way mirror he could see out but no one could see in. Double checking left and right that no one was in the hall, he opened the door, cancelling the one way mirror effect. He held the book outside of the room, and giggled when it didn't disappear. '*cough* No way did I giggle. That was totally a maniacal chuckle!'

Closing the door, still with a big grin on his face he placed his occlumency book on the table with the wands for now. One last thing to test with his vending machine to see just how much of a cheat is the Room of Requirement. Going back to the touch screen, this time he selected the design option. Typing in what he wanted, a permanent one foot tall wooden statue of himself, he pressed the create button. The lights in the room flickered for a bit, and his statue appeared. Picking up the statue he returns to the door, to test if it will disappear. Holding his breath, he placed it outside, and it stayed in his hand. Booyah! This opens so many possibilities.

The way it seems to work is based on the energy to mass conversions. This room has enough wizarding energy from the leylines that when specifically put to the task with the principle in mind it can accomplish the act of permanently conjuring something up.

There's one last test for the vending machine of miracles that he needs to check. Opening up a menu simply labeled [Books]; he starts a search for journals. Opening up the list he scrolls through the list. Getting impatient, he further refines the search and soon is looking at a list of Journals written by one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Selecting one and pressing the [Copy] function he saw a journal appear while the lights flickered for just a second. Picking it up to look at the first few pages he started laughing. Looks like his hope was correct, any book that entered this institution of learning were scanned and remembered by the wards or the magic of the castle, and this little old Room of Requirement can access that memory to make a copy of any books that have gone through here! He can immediately have a library better than the Hogwarts one, because it's for sure that Dumbledore censors what books stay in the Hogwarts library.

Calming himself down he starts to design his ultimate magic all-in-one learning travel trunk (UMALT)! It's going to be a nine "compartment" trunk. The first compartment is going to be a regular trunk space that will just hold things to be ready at hand while traveling. Things like a book to read, a sweater, blanket, card and board games, etc. This will be a good cover if he ever needs to appear muggle, or appear so in front of muggles.

The second compartment will be the wardrobe/armory. When selected instead of the lid opening like a trunk a wardrobe cabinet six feet tall will lift up. The top half will have two doors, when opened on the left half will have an extended space where all robes, suits and any clothes that hang can be hung. The right half will have an expanded space for an armory; all armor, weapons, quidditch, brooms, etc can be stored for ready access. The bottom half of the wardrobe will have drawers for shoes, socks, ties, and other accessories.

The third compartment will open in a similar manner to the second, but this one when opened directly in front will be a stove and oven top for cooking. The left side swinging door will have all spices and herbs, the right will have expanded space for a refrigerator for food storage. The topmost of the bottom drawers will provide a cutting platform, while the middle will have any bottled or canned goods, and the bottom drawer will have a freezer.

The fourth compartment will have a scribe/homework/library station. A desk will rise up with a bookshelf at the back of the desk. This bookshelf will have the entire library of books held in expanded space behind it. There will be an index book always available on the bookshelf. Inside the index book will be a touch screen pad that runs on magic that can be used to search the library by title, subject, or author. When the book desired is selected, it will appear on the bookshelf. To the left will be a roll of ever-full parchment that can be cut to length, as well as muggle style notebooks. To the right will be all writing instruments needed. Quills, calligraphy pens, fountain pens, pencils, even crayons.

The fifth compartment will be the potions/alchemy/ingredient storage.

The sixth compartment will be a runes station. Everything needed to inscribe runes, including cabinets for material storage.

The seventh compartment will be the arithmancy station. Everything needed to calculate the mathematics of spells, rituals, ingredients, and potions.

The eighth compartment will be set up for divination. He's got an idea that, aside from Trelawney's class, divination is actually a solid branch of magic. It's the art of seeing what is not immediately present. This field has potential. Like a satellite in space that looks down on earth, if this branch of magic can be utilized in a similar manner, it could be like developed to be like Star Trek scanners, long range communication, etc.

The ninth compartment becomes a mini Room of Requirement. Because this mini-RoR runs off of ambient magic instead of the leylines running through Hogwarts it can only make a room, it can't make anything to take out of the room. So he decided he'd use it as a gym to exercise during those horrible Scottish winters.

After creating his UMALT with his all encompassing library with feather light, and shrinking upon wand tap features, and bound to his blood and magic, Ron loaded up his trunk with all the spare wands. He then vendored some wand holsters, placing his two chosen wands on his forearms. He then looked down at his hand me down clothes and considered getting replacements, but then it would stick out too much that he had new clothes. So for the time being he just vendored out some good trainers and workout clothes, since he planned to do a lot of exercise in the future. He replaced his old bag with one he created with feather light and a large expanded hold. He found in the inventory of the lost and found about 130 galleons worth of coin in assorted galleons, sickles, and knuts. He also discovered that for whatever reason the RoR couldn't manufacture precious metals. Iron is fine, gold, silver, bronze, etc is a no go much to his disappointment.

Next he started to pull things out of the lost and found part of the RoR and putting them in his newly acquired inventory to sell to the store for points. And here is where he hit a snag. The store didn't want to buy the junk in the lost and found. After all it's mostly furniture and luggage, clothes and books. So he guessed that it was mostly because they were common non-magical items. To test it out he found the vanishing cabinet and put that in his inventory. When he checked in the shop it evaluated it as a broken transport cabinet, only worth 5 points. Sold! 5 points is still 5 points. That's equivalent to 500 pushups right there.

After a couple more hours he figured it was time to quit. He'd only found one other thing, a necklace that was also worth 5 points. A little disappointing that he couldn't sell everything for lots of points, but hey, most of this lost and found is from students. Guess those fanfics got it wrong, there were not all kinds of lost manuscripts of Merlin and gems and gold and swords. Just dirty underwear and socks. And while he may find some more things to sell he figured his time was better spent in other pursuits. Exercising. Learning magic. Meditating. Learning magic. Practicing magic. Learning magic.

He certainly wasn't going to mess with the horcrux, even though he knew it was magical and probably worth a bunch. He doesn't have any defenses against it, and the original Ron was weak to the horcrux, he'd rather not chance it. If it ensnared him it wasn't worth dealing with that for the measly amount of points it was probably worth.

Ron shrunk his trunk and put it in his pocket, patted his two wands, one on each forearm, and was about to leave when he had a thought. Why make just one UMALT? What if he wants to gift one to someone in the future, but can't get access to the RoR? What if he loses his and has no backup? So he decides to make an even dozen. Who doesn't need more, right? Putting all the extras in his bag, Ron heads off to familiarize himself with the map on his way to dinner.

At dinner he sits with the other Ravenclaws of his year. At first they ask a bunch of questions about why his mum was flipping out, so he told them a story about how they ran into each other at platform 9 3/4, there was a great mix up mess and he ended up at the muggle hospital. They'd wired his jaw shut, because they didn't have magic to fix a broken jaw. So his mum was frazzled and for some odd reason blamed the boy they'd ran into, instead of the silly muggles. /Shrug who knows, parents are weird that way. After that conversation moved on to their lives, where they've been, what they hope to learn, etc. It was very interesting, listening to some of the things they've seen, or that a relative had, at least for those that grew up with magic. There are a few odd magic beasts or events that never made it into J.K.s canon books.

For example there's a type of magical ant in the Congo that builds their nests into the shape of a series of protection runes. It causes ants from other nests to avoid them, while fortifying their nest to not collapse or flood. It's amazing, how do these ants know to do that? Magic, of course.

After dinner Ron joins the other Ravenclaws on their trek up to the tower. Once there they split up to do whatever they want to do. Ron goes up to his room to finish organizing his old trunk. There's a place against the wall he sets up his UMALT, then he pulls out his books for classes tomorrow to read the first two chapters. Setting aside what he'll need for classes in his bag, he pulls out his occlumency book. Time to protect his mind, or at least get a good start on it.

While reading the introduction he comes across one paragraph that makes him think. "They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. In a way that's true. They are definitely the windows to the mind. Through your eyes a legilimens can view your thoughts and memories as if they were there unless you have defenses, or shutters. But just like how a house has windows, it also has front doors, back doors, chimneys, pipes, vents, cellars, etc. So it is necessary to shore up your entire body's defense, instead of just around your head or your mind." He goes on to describe how the body has magic flowing all throughout it. The first part to learning his occlumency is to familiarize oneself with what the normal flow of magic is like in the body. The first step to doing this is to cast Lumos. Then hold it, close the eyes and just feel the magic flow. After being able to feel that, then you cancel the Lumos spell and simply continue to feel the magic already flowing. Doing that on and off until one can feel the natural flow of magic.

The next part is to be able to detect the interruption of the normal flow of magic, namely when foreign magic is being cast on the body. It can be practiced with anything from a color charm, to a tickle charm, to an actual legilimens probe.

The next part is building the defenses. This is the part that one builds a mind palace, so to speak. One's mindscape and defenses can be anything, but the more familiar one is with the defenses, the better it will be. Someone who doesn't know anything about a space ship trying to build one as a defense will fail. On the opposite spectrum, someone who knows and understands Hogwarts can make incredibly strong defenses using Hogwarts. It doesn't matter that many people know or have gone to Hogwarts, because it has been so personalized in their mind that other people cannot navigate your personal Hogwarts. It is after all your own mind, where you rule supreme.

The last step is to automate the defenses. This way even in one's sleep the defenses are still up and will defend and alert when being cast upon.

After reading the book, Ron started on the first step, the Lumos spell. Turning it on and off. On and off. He kept repeating it, before he knew it had been more than one hour. The last thing he did before going to sleep on the busiest day of his life was to browse the store, to see what was available and to plan for his future. This will be great.


	6. Chapter 6

Early in the morning in the first year dorms of Ravenclaw an 11 year old Ravenclaw suddenly sits up in bed, eyes still closed. After sitting still for a moment, he opens his eyes and hungrily looks around. 'Nope, it wasn't a dream. Excellent.' Ron thought in the style of Mr. Burns.

Opening up his [Quest] menu he reaffirmed what his daily workout goal would be, and got out of bed to dress in his workout clothes. After a moment of thought, he decided that he'd take his workout down to the quidditch pitch for now until it got too cold; then he'd use his mini RoR gym setting. Doing this would also get him used to moving around the castle for now, which is a bonus.

'I'm not falling for the "running laps around the lake" trope when exercising at Hogwarts. I've been to lakes before and there are always rocks, tree roots, and uneven ground. It's not like the lake is a nice track. No way am I going to go running on that until I get in better shape. Maybe not even until I've got my animagus form. For now I'll stick to the nice, flat, grassy pitch.'

Surprisingly enough when Ron got down to the pitch he saw a few avid quidditch players already down there on their brooms. With a casual glance at the flyers, he started on his workout. He figured it'd be good to warm up with a few laps, followed by stretching. Feeling suitably limber he began doing his pushups, sit-ups, squats, and other such exercises for the next 45 minutes. Following that he ran around the pitch for the next 25 minutes, followed by another stretch.

While stretching Ron decided he was going to experiment with his magic. It seemed before that his magic let him recover faster, so he attempted to direct his magic to his sore muscles, trying to see if "soaking/rinsing" them in more magic will help them recover faster, which would build muscle strength quicker. It seemed to be working, and as an added bonus because Ron was rinsing his muscles in magic while stretching it seemed to help his muscles become slightly more flexible while at the same time improving his control over his magic.

When he noticed the effect this was having on his fitness, Ron became slightly more excited. He made up his mind that this would definitely be a part of his daily exercise routine. This will speed up his efforts to lay his foundation of a sound body and mind.

Satisfied with his morning exercise Ron set out for the Ravenclaw tower to shower and get ready for his day.

* * *

Ron had noticed that the Ravenclaw students mostly kept to groups of 2-4, but mostly they were groups of individuals. Since there didn't seem to be much social clumping, every individual doing their own thing, depending on who their close friends were, Ron decided he'd head out to breakfast on his own, instead of waiting for anyone else.

He didn't really feel the desire to become close friends with anyone, which seemed to be a reciprocated attitude by the other first year Ravenclaws. They were friendly enough, just not seeming to desire becoming close bosom buddies, which was fine with Ron.

Entering the hall for breakfast Ron noticed Fred and George sitting at the Gryffindor table. They didn't look like they had much sleep, he noticed. Switching his destination Ron went to sit with the two.

"Things went good then? No problems?" Ron brightly inquired of his brothers.

Glaring at him for daring to be so chipper on a morning when they hadn't had much sleep, the twins affirmed everything went smooth and they weren't caught. 'Looks like I'll give them their Christmas gift early. I'd imagine a UMALT will make them happy.' Ron idly mused to himself with a grin, but was interrupted by the arrival of the delivery owls.

Just like he had expected, the whole story broke in the Daily Prophet, and they as Weasleys were getting the stink eye from everyone. Looking over at Percy who was fuming and getting himself madder and madder, Ron nudged the twins and indicated Percy. Seeing he was on the verge of exploding, the twins quickly made their way to him to explain exactly what was going on, and that they needed to keep a low profile. If they were seen loudly cursing at the BWL right now, they'd just be digging themselves deeper in everyone's eyes.

This whole scene was another reason Ron hadn't tried to get too close to anyone. Through the next few days he'd be able to discover, based on their actions, which of his peers were sheep that march to the bandwagon's drum. If any of them were worth getting to know it wouldn't be too late to start after seeing how they handle this.

Finishing with a hearty meal for his growing body, Ron went on his way to his classes. He was determined to wring every last drop of benefits he could get from attending Hogwarts. They supposedly have what were reputed to be some of the best minds in their fields as teachers here. What better time than now to learn.

* * *

As Ron went through the next couple of days of classes he made a conscious effort to firmly establish good study habits. During the theory classes he'd have a dicta-quill recording the teacher's lecture, while writing down questions and concerns he'd come across in his notebook to ask the teacher after the lecture.

Each of the teachers had different ways of getting their points across. Professor McGonagall seemed to favor dipping ever deeper into all the dry theory while being meticulous about pointing out anything that could be harmful or deadly with the art of Transfiguration. Many of the horror stories she told in such a dry manner definitely served to illustrate the reasons she was so focused on learning the theory properly.

Professor Flitwick focused on the practical aspect of Charms. His teaching method seemed to be a way of using practice as a method of drilling the basics of theory into his student's very bones. This method of teaching was very versatile, shoring up the weakness of each kind of student. The students that were not so apt at book studies were able to use the practice to kinesthetically learn, while the more book-bound were forced to get out of their heads to apply what they, in theory, knew. It would sometimes lead to some entertaining accidents. Like someone blowing up a feather when they should be levitating it.

The most notable aspect of Professor Spout's teaching method in Herbology seemed to be her whole demeanor or aura of mothering care. It made it so if the students messed about in her class, or didn't give their full effort to learn it seemed like she was slightly disappointed in the student, like they were letting down their own mothers. This aura of hers seemed very effective, even on the Slytherins. Or rather, it almost seemed like the Slytherins were affected even more than the average student. 'Could that have anything to do with the cold and heartless homes that puts so much expectations on their kids compounded by the warm and tender care that Snape shows them?' Ron idly mused, remembering the effect such kindness in the midst of so much indifference had on him in his past life. 'If Sprout wasn't so quintessentially Hufflepuff, I'd suspect her to be the secret Slytherin Matriarch, the ways she's got the Slytherins almost eating out of her hands' Ron concluded to himself.

Professor Sinistra on the other hand was very business-like and brisk. Her lessons on Astronomy were short, most of the information being in packets that the students filled out while standing at their telescopes. 'It makes sense though, she probably recognizes the difficulty of keeping her students attention so late at night, so she makes us do most of the work' Ron evaluated. 'It also makes us active in the recording of information, instead of passively sleeping through, I mean listening, to a lecture.' On a more interesting note to Ron was that their telescopes, while not as powerful as the muggle version, had runes on them that let them see through the cloud cover. After being amazed at those runes, Ron realized that in the weird convoluted wizard logic it made sense. Why bother making a planetarium to study astronomy at a more convenient hour when instead the 11 year old students can just use those telescopes. But he was pretty excited for when he would learn enough runes to replicate that feat.

It wouldn't be until months later while reading a book on Astronomy that Ron would finally realize the false assumption that he made when he first looked through his telescope that first Astronomy lesson. The telescopes don't actually see through the cloud cover, they instead have a different version of the effect a pensieve has. Looking through the lens while pointing at the sky would show what stars would be there. This realization would both shock and anger him. The shock came from realizing how bad of an assumption he'd made; and if he'd made one big error like that, he realized he could also have mistaken impressions on other things. This would cause him to become even more careful in making assumptions based his initial perceptions, causing him to double, triple, and quadruple check with different source materials as well as his own understanding of magic. The anger came with the renewed realization that they could hold Astronomy classes at a reasonable time and not mess with his sleep/exercise/study schedules. 'Stupid wizards' he would mutter to himself more than once over the years.

After the first lesson in Defense against the Dark Arts, Ron realized that Quirrell's ability to teach was in the negatives. Not only was his stutter distracting, it took up a lot of the class time, especially the practical part of class. They would sit there for five minutes after one student cast one spell trying to decipher Quirrell's stuttering "corrections" to the spell cast by the student. After the class Ron pulled out his dictated copy of the lesson and rewrote it without all the stutters. He discovered that not only did Quirrell waste half the class with his stutters, but he actually taught completely wrong when compared to the book. Ron was sure more students would have discovered this if they weren't completely distracted by the stutters. 'It seems old Tom Riddle doesn't want competent wizards and witches to be able to defend themselves against his bully boys' Ron angrily complained about the whole thing. 'Thankfully he'll be gone by Halloween, if Potter and Potter make the same plan for him. Then we can get some actual DADA classes going.'

And finally there was Snape. Ron had of course appreciated Alan Rickman's fine acting chops before, but it was only now that he realized just how amazing Rickman actually was. He had taken someone as angry and filled with vitriolic hatred as Snape and transformed him into a charismatic dark hero. 'Holy cow, Rickman turned Snape into a wizard Batman! Tragic back story, lives in the dark, mingles with the scum so that he can accomplish his noble goal. Rickman is amazing! Not like the scum the actual Snape is!' Ron lost himself in gushing like a fanboi for a few moments before slapping himself straight.

Snape's method of teaching wasn't. He never explained any of the methods of brewing, just slapped the directions on the board and hovered angrily. He never answered questions, just reflexively took off points that he wasn't really able to while under probation and told them to read the book, dunderhead. It was a serious trial to get through the classes with his cauldron intact. If Ron hadn't been reading more than needed, he'd be lost on what to do with his potion.

* * *

The rest of the week Ron watched events happening through the Daily Prophet articles while completing the daily quests he'd set for himself of exercising, studying, meditating, and learning occlumency.

The first news was that Sirius Black was freed and Peter Pettigrew caught and tried for his betrayal of the Potters as well as being a member of Voldemort's Death Eaters. Ron nodded in approval while congratulating Madam Bones on a job well done. He was glad that his decision to warn the Weasleys of what was to come hadn't backfired. They'd gotten notice through the professors that their parents would pick them up on Friday and they'd return Sunday night. There was Weasley family business to conduct this weekend.

Ever since that piece of news came out he'd noticed that Dumbledore looked increasingly frazzled. He seemed to be running all over the place, trying to get a handle on what's going on, trying to control it. But he didn't seem to be successful. In addition to Dumbledore looking like he'd been run through the wringer, Snape seemed to not even be aware of what was going on around him. Many times he'd seen him looking at Dumbledore in a strange manner. Of course no emotions were shown on his face, but you could almost hear the gears creaking away in his mind. He was thinking hard about something.

The next piece of news was the support Lord Sirius Black gave the Minister for his actions in seeing justice done. It was of course righting a wrong the previous administration had done. The previous administration totally mishandled the case. It looks like the Potter's plans are moving forward. Ron was rooting for them to sweep all the Death Eater pieces off the board. 'No way do I want to fight a war I'm not even trained for yet. Better to get all my schooling done and be competent in my spells before I get to that' Ron thought to himself fervently.

The last piece of news was that Barty Crouch senior had been arrested after it was found that he had helped his son escape Azkaban then held his son under the Imperious all this time. His son was sentenced to the veil, while he was sentenced to life in Azkaban.

'Excellent news indeed. I don't even have to do anything; the competent Potters can take care of it all. I just have to survive their inquisition, which I'm sure they'll have once they get back. I've been so out of character that they have to wonder if I've come back from the future too. But I've acted out of character for the previous Ron Weasley to give me the benefit of the doubt, hopefully. Now I just need to figure out if I should approach them, or let them come to me?' Humming thoughtfully while weighing the risks and rewards in each decision Ron continued in his schedule.

Friday afternoon arrived and Percy, the twins, and Ron were gathered at the entrance to the castle, waiting for the professors to arrive. After a few minutes both Professors McGonagall and Flitwick arrived and started escorting them to the gates. After some admonishments of when to have them back the young Weasley students were released to their parents.

The walk to The Three Broomsticks was pleasant. It allowed time for Arthur and Molly to talk to their boys about the week they'd had at school. Ron noticed there seemed to be some tension and stiffness between their parents. Molly seemed a little less forceful, like she was making an effort to hold back and let Arthur take the lead and not browbeat like she was used to. 'Maybe there's hope for her yet' pondered Ron.

When they arrived at the Burrow through the floo they noticed Bill and Ginny sitting at the table waiting for them. Soon the meeting got underway. Arthur started by explaining to the entire family how they ended up in the mess they did, starting with the meeting at the train station, the confrontation in the Great Hall, and how charges were being leveled against their mother. Arthur and Bill had lost their jobs. They'd be moving out this weekend; their home was sold for a surprisingly large amount, but half of what they got would go to paying the fines. They wouldn't be able to get work in Britain, so with some of Bill's contacts they were going to work at an inn/pub in Egypt. The boys would be going back to Hogwarts, and they must behave, no pranks, no getting into altercations with Harry Potter or his wife. Ginny would be staying with Muriel Prewitt. When Ginny heard that she begged to go with their parents and Bill. After being told that it wouldn't work she burst into tears and ran to her room.

When Ginny left, Ron decided to try explaining some of his ideas on how magic can be used in the muggle world to earn money instead of just being a menial help at a pub. He explained to them how house flipping worked, that they would buy a really cheap muggle house that was in disrepair then over the course of a couple weeks to a month they'd fix it up with magic and resell it for more. Keep doing that while they'd have a temporary house to live in while fixing it up.

Next idea was to run a repair shop / refurbishing car garage. How they could buy old junker cars/trucks fix them so they would work, then resell them. If they picked some vintage models, especially in the U.S. they could sell them at auction or through ads.

The last idea was because Bill was a curse breaker if he could put up wards he could go to the muggle parents of first gen wizards and witches to put up some basic wards for them to prevent fires, a little bit of protection against theft and magic. Also a sort of alarm for if anyone with bad intentions comes to their property.

Unfortunately, despite Ron going to great effort to explain these industries, they just didn't feel comfortable enough in the muggle world to attempt to put these ideas into action. So they will stick to the original plan.

Despite being frustrated at their lack of courage to get involved in the muggle world there's nothing Ron could do about it. Mentally shrugging he suggested that maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to send her to their Aunt Muriel's place. Maybe they should ask the Lovegoods if they could put her up for now.

Unfortunately they didn't feel comfortable with that either. Firstly they'd already gone to the trouble of gaining Aunt Muriel's cooperation. Secondly, they'd been a bit distant from the Lovegoods since the passing of Luna's mom, Pandora, and they didn't feel it was right to impose on them. Apparently it was okay with Muriel because they are family, even if they don't get along very well.

Internally sighing at the lack of progress to push his family in what he thinks is the right direction, Ron gives up for now. 'Well, I was hoping to get them to invest in a profitable industry, so they can make money and be a better ally in this world, but there's only so much I can do. And if you don't have money or power in this world, there's only so much you can do. I guess I can only give up for now and work on my own personal power while at Hogwarts' Ron lamented to himself.

The meeting broke up with the news that they'd pack everything tomorrow and move out Sunday morning. Ron decided he'd go up and see how Ginny was doing. Knocking on the door, he heard some movement inside for a minute. Just as he was about to give up for now and try later, she opened the door.

"How are you feeling Gin?" Ron inquired awkwardly. He'd never had a sister in his past life, and didn't really know how to interact with girls, but he did know they ran on feelings. His friends told him it was important to listen to what they had to say about their feelings even if you were bored to despair, you had to be attentive or you'd get what for.

Ginny scoffs with a scowl on her face. "How do you think I feel, having to go to that harpy while you get to go back to Hogwarts? Why couldn't I go this year too?" She complains.

"Yeah, sucks. Hey, can I come in for a moment; I've got something for you I found at Hogwarts" Ron replies. He'd made the decision on his way up to gift her with a UMALT, hopefully to cheer her up. He'd also be giving one to Bill and one to each of the twins. Percy was acting like too much of a pain to gift him one just yet; and he didn't want to deal with the parental inquisition yet, so they don't get one right now.

"Fine, as long as you're not here to gloat or prank me!" Ginny growled.

'Damn, Ron Weasley, you're a sucky brother. You'd better live a better life where ever you are now.' Ron groused to himself as he walked in and closed the door behind him.

"Nah, nothing like that. Listen, I know I haven't been the best brother. Sorry 'bout that. When I was wacked upside the head by Harry Potter that day on the platform, something in my mind seemed to have broken loose. After waking up I felt I could think better, like I wasn't always full of jealousy and anger. So although I was knocked for a loop, I felt better than I have for many years." Ron "confessed" to his sister.

She didn't quite look like she believed him, but she wasn't shooting him down immediately. Progress of sorts. Reaching into his bag that he'd brought with him he pulled out a shrunken UMALT for her. Setting it on the ground he pulled his wand out of his forearm holster, tapped it on the UMALT to resize it to normal.

Seeing the trunk grow to normal size, Ginny's eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped open. When Ron saw her reaction, he smiled a little bit in satisfaction at surprising her. "So I found a lost and found at Hogwarts. It was hidden pretty well so no one knew where it was, except maybe the house elves. Most of the stuff was junk, old socks, broken tables that no one wanted to fix. Stuff like that. But I found a few of these special trunks. I call them a UMALT. It stands for Ultimate Magical All-in-one Learning Trunk." Pulling out a knife from his bag and handing it to her while pointing to the lock. "Knick your finger and put a drop of blood here, and it'll be locked to your blood and magic. Only you can access it then."

Once she'd done that, he started describing it to her, and showing her all the features, including the huge library, and the room that can be a hideaway for her while she's at the Harpy's place. She got so excited she gave him a big hug, a huge grin on her face. She seemed especially happy for the wardrobe function. 'Huh, girls. They're never excited about what I'm excited about. Whatever, it's all good as long as she likes it.' Ron thought.

Thinking for a bit about her character, how she'd sneak out at night to fly brooms when her brothers wouldn't let her play with them he decided he'd see if she could match one of the wands he'd picked up. Pulling out his own UMALT he opened up the section that had the wands and holsters. "There was also a bunch of wands in the lost and found. You know some wizards are daft when they manage to lose their own wand. Likely lose a body part if it wasn't attached." He gestures for her to try them to get a match.

After a few minutes she gets a couple that match pretty good. Giving her a couple of holsters he warns her that she'd better be careful when practicing not to either hurt herself or get caught, because then they'd take her wands from her and they'd both be in trouble. She can't seem to get the grin off her face. "One more thing, I know going to that harpy's place is going to suck." Her grin melted off her face, replaced by a scowl. "Sorry for bringing down the mood, I just wanted to remind you that your friend Luna is a real gentle soul. I'm sure if it gets unbearable at the harpy's you can always escape and take refuge with Luna. Remember, our parents won't even be in the country to stop you!" He finished while wagging his eyebrows, finally getting a giggle from her. After getting one last hug, Ron left her room to let her play with her new toys.

Arriving at the twin's room he knocks and gets let in, closing the door behind him. He goes through the same song and dance with the twins that he went through with Ginny, gifting them with a UMALT each, and finding some decent matching wands for them, so now they have two wands each and their holsters. They seem really happy to have the second wand, because now they can get away with a lot more. Seems they've been caught before when their wands were checked for certain spells. Now they can have an "official" wand that gets checked and their sneak wand to cast whatever they need.

Ron leaves the room to assurances that he's now their favorite brother. 'He he, I'm sure that won't last long. Feels pretty good though to have such jovial rule breakers as partners in crime- I mean as brothers.' Ron chuckles to himself.

Arriving at Bill's door, and getting let in Ron first gets Bill to promise he won't bring this to their parents. This is something he found at Hogwarts lost and found, and he thinks Bill could benefit a lot from it, because of his work as a Curse Breaker. Once Bill promises not to bring it to their parents as long as it's not dangerous, Ron pulls out a UMALT for Bill. Before doing anything, Bill first runs a series of diagnostic spells on the trunk. 'I guess that's the kind of thing he's learned in his job. Never assume something you found, even in Hogwarts, is curse free. Free lesson for me I guess.' Ron concludes to himself, resolving to learn some diagnostic spells sometime this year.

Once Bill finished with the spells and bound the trunk to him, Ron explained about the different compartments. Bill seems especially interested in the library and the mini RoR as expected. Ron decides that he doesn't need to pull out the wands for Bill since he's an adult and fully capable of taking care of all his wand related needs. 'Pfft, so Freudian!" Ron chuckled to himself. 'But sometimes a wand is just a wand.'

Ron walked to his room and opened the door, then slammed it shut just as quick. He felt like his brain had just been assaulted through his poor eyes. Orange. Orange everywhere. 'No offense Naruto, but orange is something best taken in moderation and not in such neon vibrancy everywhere!' Narrowing his eyes to reduce the orange glare Ron enters his room and starts taking down the posters to protect his eyes.

Ron gets about a quarter of the way through cleaning up his room before dinner, packing it away in his trunk to be disposed of later. When he hears the call for dinner he exits the room and makes his way to the washroom with his siblings to wash his hands before dinner.

Dinner was fun for Ron. Because of his gift for Ginny and reminder that she can just make her great escape the mood wasn't as gloomy as it likely would have been otherwise. This is the first time he's seeing nearly the whole family dynamics, minus Charlie. It was very lively. The only downer was Percy. Because of what happened in the books, Percy taking the side of the ministry over his family, Ron just doesn't trust Percy right now to want to gift him with a UMALT. Until he starts changing himself, he's on the outside.

After cleaning up the kitchen, they're all released to their rooms. Ron finishes clearing all the junk left behind by Ron Weasley. The only thing left is the bed and his trunk, so he sits on his bed and starts his meditation exercises. So far he's only been able to get a single SP for each of his meditation attempts, and this time is no different. Maybe he needs to get a Soul Cultivation technique that will improve his meditation attempts.

Opening up the store Ron searches for soul cultivation related items. He sees there are a number of different items for sale. Soul cultivation methods. Crystals for measuring soul power. Crystals for determining the best soul cultivation method for a person. Pills to increase soul power. Soul attack and soul defending techniques.

First things first, Ron purchases a crystal to determine what the best cultivation method for him is. Following the directions that came with the crystal Ron concentrates on sending his magic and focus into the crystal. Inside the crystal he sees 12 lights that are in the shape of a mini arch orbiting a grey glowing pulsating ball. Interesting. He inputs the variables he sees into the store, and looks to see what cultivation method suits him.

[12 Tacos A Night Carousel].

Shocked at the ridiculous name he opens his eyes and stares blankly at the wall. 'What. The. Hell. Seriously, what kind of a name is that?!'

Closing his eyes again he sees the name has changed.

[12 Taconite Caravel].

'I have no idea what that means' Ron thought. Going to his trunk he looks for a dictionary. Taconite is a type of iron ore. A caravel is a small, fast Spanish or Portuguese sailing ship. 'Okay, translation error or someone was messing with me. Ha ha, you got me.' Ron sarcastically thought while rolling his eyes.

Looking at the description of the cultivation method it describes it's based on two ideas to transform the soul. Metal is dense, while the type of boat is fast. The soul is dense; the defense is strong and the offense is mighty. The soul is fast; the enemy attacks can't land if the counter lands before the enemy can strike. 'That doesn't sound half bad. I'll give it a try' Ron decides. But then he sees the price tag. 'Too expensive! At the rate I'm going, I won't have enough for at least another year. And I still need an Energy Cultivation Method as well as a Body Cultivation Method. How can I increase the rate I get SP at?'

Suddenly he gets an idea. Ron started a search, and found what he was looking for: [Shadow Clone Technique]. A technique to make a clone out of a person's energy. The clone can act independently, and when released the person gets the memories of what the clone did. With this Ron can do more than one thing at a time. He can send the clone to classes while he exercises or practices magic. He can have the clone read books, and it'll count for him. This technique is perfect for speeding up his learning ability and earning points faster, and he won't be restricted by class schedules in doing the training that he wants!

Upon further reading the description in the shop, he notices a few restrictions: only usable by ninja physiques from the Naruto universe. It also requires his stats to reach a certain level before it's usable. He turns to the search function to browse ninja physiques. After browsing he takes note of the price and requirements for the physiques. Based on the price he'll be able to purchase it by Christmas time. What about his stats? He brings up his status.

* * *

Name: Ron Weasley

Age: 11

Race: Human

Bloodline: Wizard

Cultivation Methods:

Body Cultivation: None

Energy Cultivation: None

Soul Cultivation: None

Stats

Strength: 9

Dexterity: 9

Constitution: 10

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Charisma: 8

* * *

Ron's Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma all went up by 1. He understands the physical stats going up because he's been exercising and rinsing his muscles in magic, but what about his Charisma? Thinking about it for a while he comes to the conclusion that it must be because of his other activities. Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution are stats of his body. Intelligence and/or Wisdom are probably related to his energy, like mages and clerics in D&D. Wisdom and Charisma might be related to his soul? There are physically unattractive people who are still charismatic and there are physically attractive people who can be repulsive. It probably has to do with their soul. He hasn't had great success in his meditation, but he did start out as a 7. Lower levels are easier to improve on, so that is probably the case.

So for now he'll say that Intelligence will determine how much energy he's got and Wisdom is the ability to wield it. Charisma will be his soul power and Wisdom is related to the ability to control it.

He opens up his quest page, and inputs the quest that by Christmas he'll purchase the Uzumaki bloodline, and by the first of April he'll have purchased the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

The Uzumaki bloodline is the best. Remembering all those fanfics where they nerdgasm over the Uchiha eyes Ron can't help but sneer in disdain. 'Everything about the Uzumaki bloodline was better. They get a really powerful life-force, so they live long lives while aging slowly. As a result they have godly stamina. They have really unique abilities: regeneration, chakra sensing, and chakra chains. They are naturals at fuinjutsu, or seals, which probably translates over to ancient runes here in the wizard world. They are also highly skilled in sword fighting. The only reason Naruto was behind Sasuke most of the time or barely even was because he had crappy teachers.'

'Just look at Naruto's first real jutsu: Shadow Clone Jutsu. He's able to make hundreds of clones on the first night, and he's unusually resilient to the mental damage of gaining so many clones memories. Now what did Kakashi ever teach him? Tree climbing. That's it. And when Kakashi saw the way Naruto was training did he ever stop him and say, "Hey Naruto, make ten clones and you can learn this ten times faster." Nope, Kakashi let him do it the slow way to motivate Sasuke.'

'What did Jiraiya teach him? Before the chuunin finals he taught him to use the fox's chakra to summon toads. Did he teach Naruto how to use toads in combat? Nope. He should have had him pop out hundreds of clones to learn jutsus while working on his taijutsu and physical condition. Now that would have been useful. Then he taught him rasengan. But wait, rasengan is a close range jutsu, and Naruto sucks at taijutsu because nobody ever taught him. How is he supposed to land that rasengan hit? Whoops!'

'Then during the three years he was on a training trip with Jiraiya, what did he learn? How to access the Fox's chakra is all they were working on. Hell, Sakura the number 1 fan girl caught up to him in terms of ninja power. Three years of clones training with one of the Sannin should have given him a metric butt ton of jutsus and experience on how to use them, as well as make him super fast and powerful, with his stamina. But nope, Jiraiya was too busy with "Research" and spending Naruto's money to help train him.'

'It's not until later that he finally uses the clones to train right. Nope, Naruto was failed by his teachers. He's a stamina and chakra beast, he should have been powerful in taijutsu and ninjutsu, but no one taught him.'

'Meanwhile you have the sharingan. Pitiful. It's a decent pair of eyes, once it's unlocked, but there were a bunch of Uchiha who never unlocked their eyes. Then they have to kill someone very close to them to unlock the mangekyo. Then they have to transplant someone else's mangekyo to themselves so they don't go blind. After copying an ability they still have to train it. But they get drunk on the power of copying and forget they need to practice. That process of learning how to use an ability increases the expertise in it much more than just knowing from seeing it. So, nope, the abilities of the Uzumaki bloodline are thousands of times better than the copying ability of the sharingan.'

Ron took a deep breath, 'Okay rant over. Some of those internet arguments are still making me hot headed, hehe' he chuckled to himself sheepishly. 'Well, time to meditate again to calm down before going to sleep.'


	7. Chapter 7

Saturday was spent on a Weasley Family Cleaning Spree. At the direction of their mother the Weasleys packed away all the family mementos, cleaned up the attic, cleared the yard, etc. But the under-aged kids weren't allowed to use magic to do anything. 'Seriously, what is up with that? Builds character? Blind adherence to underage laws? We could have finished it in one morning if Percy, George, and Fred had been allowed to use magic. We only got it done in one day because Dad and Bill are here, and she can't stop them from using magic' Ron tragically sighed to himself, feeling ill used.

Looking around the Burrow stripped clean left an odd sensation in his heart. Ron had only really seen it the way it was for one evening, but it just felt so wrong seeing it like this. Maybe because he'd enjoyed reading about the Weasleys in the books back in his world, it felt wrong to see it like this. Or maybe there was some lingering sentiment from the original Ron Weasley left in this body.

There was one fanfiction from back home that especially touched him, really highlighted the good that the Weasley family could be. It was written by Dunuelos, about The Lone Traveler. It was a story of a Harry Potter that attempted to time travel to his past to get a second chance to save everyone he lost originally, but something went wrong, and he ended up being forced to be a dimensional traveler that would pop in and out of dimensions, arriving at a time in each dimension where he could fix things up so that everything wouldn't go to shit.

In the story that Ron was thinking about, Harry had arrived outside the Burrow right at the time when Arthur and his brothers in law, Fabian and Gideon, were just about to start building the Burrow. So he helped them out, giving the Burrow a better foundation and better protections, because of the war that was going on. What followed was a wonderful story of building a home full of love, protecting family, and fighting the darkness that Riddle brought to their society.

It's heartwarming stories like that that gives him hope for the Weasleys. Even though in this universe, in the previous timeline, they had turned as bad as the blood purity faction of the wizarding world, it doesn't mean they can't be changed for the better. At this current time Ginny is just an innocent 10 year old, Ron Weasley is no more, and Molly is going to be working a tough job that will build character; so it seems it might not be too late to really turn the family around. Maybe it is for the best that his new parents didn't take up his idea of house flipping. It would be too easy to make money, and then Molly wouldn't really learn anything from this hardship; she would just go back to being the overbearing harpy that she's turned in to.

In the previous timeline that Harry and Hermione already lived through it really was Molly's sense of superiority and hard headedness that infected Percy, Ron, and Ginny. And because the family is so loyal to each other the rest followed them off that cliff. So it's probably for the best to get Molly away from Ginny now, and get her to experience hardship to change her for the better.

The Day of Cleaning finally finished, the Weasley family had their last dinner at the Burrow. Over dinner the family was reminiscing, retelling some of the memories they'd made at the house. Ron did his best to fit in, without having to tell any stories. Giving excuses of "Nah, you tell it better, go ahead" or "That's too embarrassing, I'm not retelling that" and similar sentiments to get them to tell the stories. 'In all those transmigration stories the protagonist always seemed to at least get the memories of the host so that they could fit in better. I got screwed in that sense, but at the same time, Ron Weasley was a lazy opinionated oaf, so I'm kind of glad I didn't get his memories. It took years for him to grow out of his childishness so I'm pretty happy I wasn't influenced by his memories to become like him.'

The next morning at breakfast the good mood seemed to have deserted everyone. Ginny was reminded that shortly she'd be in the harpy's nest. Percy was reminded that he wasn't a prefect anymore. His own sense of importance seemed to have taken a hit, so he was in a foul mood. Molly seemed to be on the verge of tears, this being the last time they'd be in the home they'd built. George and Fred seemed to realize that it wasn't time to joke around, or they'd get blown up at, especially by Ginny and Molly. Arthur and Bill on the other hand just put on a stoic face, like it was just some business to get taken care of.

After breakfast they split up, Arthur taking Ginny to the harpy's place, while Bill and Molly went with everyone else to The Three Broomsticks via the floo to make their way to Hogwarts. It was decided by their parents that instead of sitting around at the Burrow all day they'd just make the break this morning instead. No sense waffling about.

On the path to Hogwarts they got all kinds of advice from Molly and Bill about how to conduct themselves during this time. No getting in trouble, i.e. no pranks. No messing with the Potters, they couldn't afford any more trouble. Do their homework. Be on their best behavior. Eat right. Bathe regularly.

When they finally arrived at the gate they found it locked securely. After rattling the gates a bit, they noticed what looked like a bell pull next to the gate. Pulling it didn't produce any sound, but shortly after they noticed a man come out of a small house, almost a hut, just inside the gates. He looked pretty worn, sporting several noticeable scars on his face.

After introductions Ron found out this was Remus Lupin, hired to be security here. They weren't let in immediately; Lupin insisted he'd have to message a professor to come down for verification and to escort the students to the castle. While Lupin was sending a Patronus, Bill spent his time calming Molly down.

'Looks like Molly still needs more time than just a week to cement it into her head that she's not able to just bull her way around, and sometimes she needs to compromise' Ron thought idly as he waited. Looking at the facial expressions of Lupin he thought that maybe Lupin was enjoying being an obstruction just a bit much. 'He's probably gotten the story from Harry and Hermione by now' Ron thought to himself.

When Lupin turned his head and looked at him with disdain and disgust, Ron certified to himself that Lupin had been told about the past future that would never happen again. Sighing to himself about the bad rep he had now because of his current body, he turned his thoughts to what he'd do the rest of the day. He'd already gotten in his workout in his mini-RoR today and yesterday. There were some books he'd like to continue, namely the first year theory books. Memorizing some potions and ingredients could count towards both Potions and Herbology. He'd like to hit up some bestiaries, to see what else is out there besides the standard dragons, unicorns, and centaurs.

Ron had been so involved in his plans that he'd forgotten to keep track of his surroundings, so when he heard a voice loudly calling out to Lupin from behind them, he startled a little. Turning around he saw the Potters walking up the path just behind them. Looking at their faces and postures he noticed how alert they seemed. It looked like they were expecting some kind of trouble from the Weasleys. Bill made sure to grab their mother's wand arm and make sure she didn't stir up anything, especially when Lupin opens the gate immediately to let the Potters in, while the Weasleys still had to wait for a Professor to show up. 'Oh, no, they're not being vindictive' Ron sarcastically chuckled to himself. 'Well, it's not like they're doing anything to us but assiduously following the rules to the point of pedantry. It's bearable, with the right attitude of patience. Or at least not giving a *cough*.'

So Ron just quietly stood there with a neutral look on his face. He noticed a few times that Harry or Hermione's eyes would shift his way, assessing him. He couldn't figure out exactly what they were thinking, but he could see they expected him to put up more of a fuss, or fidget around or something. But he just calmly stood there waiting, wondering if he should pull a book out of his bag to really throw them for a loop.

Before Ron could follow through on his plan the Potters left Lupin behind, walking up to the castle. A few more minutes and Professor McGonagall showed up, walking to the gate. After passing a few words to Lupin, the gate was opened. Only the students were allowed in, Bill and Molly had to satisfy themselves with a few parting words, then they left.

On the way to the castle Professor McGonagall spent time telling the Weasleys about the changes that took place over the past weekend that was announced at breakfast this morning. The new rules and punishments that would be implemented were introduced. When Fred and George heard that, they were silently communicating with each other about how much that would curtail their main source of entertainment, and if the punishment would be worth it. They seemed to settle on a wait and see cautious approach.

There were some staffing changes. Apparently over the weekend Professor Snape disappeared on them. So Dumbledore would take over for the next couple of days until a replacement could be procured. When this news was given Fred, George, and Ron cheered heartily at not having Snape as a professor anymore.

There was a new class for all the new students, introducing the muggle world to the wizard born and the wizard world to the muggle born. It was mandatory for all new students, to foster a sense of understanding. There would be a field trip towards the end of September to the muggle world, and toward the end of October there would be one to the Ministry of Magic building.

By the time Professor McGonagall had finished with what she had to say they were standing in the entrance of the castle. So with one last admonishment to behave, she let them go their separate ways. Ron cheekily waved bye to his brothers and made his way to his room in the Ravenclaw tower. When he got there, everything seemed to still be in place, nothing messed with.

After puttering about for a bit, rearranging some things on his shelves, Ron decided that since it was a decent day outside, he'd spend most of it reading his books by the lake. Putting action to thought, he trooped down all the stairs, heading out to find a nice tree to lean against. Wandering around the shore of the lake, he nodded in satisfaction that he'd chosen right in running at the pitch last week. He'd been too busy during the week to make the trip to the lake, so this is the first he'd seen it up close. Sitting down facing the lake he pulled out his Transfiguration text and set to learning.

After a couple of chapters, and taking notes of questions on important points he'd ask Professor McGonagall, Ron pulled out his Charms book and repeated the process. When his stomach growled at him loudly, he finally took note of the time. Packing up his belongings in his bag Ron made his way to lunch. Reading his magic history book while eating, he paid no attention to the gossipy people around him. They didn't directly talk to him, so they deserved none of his attention after all.

After lunch he headed back out to the lake to the spot he'd found to start on his Potions reading. Ron figured that by the end of this week he'd be far enough ahead to start adding in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes to start getting a head start on those topics. He'd already decided there's no way he's waiting until third year to get started on those subjects. Probably during the holiday breaks he'd start looking through his library to see what it had on divination, and if it would live up to his speculation, or if he'd need to create the spells he wanted on his own when he'd learned enough runes and arithmancy.

Ron was so involved in his studying he didn't notice two figures sneaking up behind him with wands in hand. One of the figures raised his wand and silently cast a stupefy his way. Noticing the red light at the last moment the only thing he could do was jerk around a little before it hit, knocking him out.

* * *

Ron groaned as he woke up, feeling bruised all over, including some knots on his head. He tried to curl up, but realized he was tied pretty securely to a chair. Looking up he saw Harry and Hermione Potter sitting across from him, wands in hand, having evidently just cast an enervate on him. They had very stern faces.

Looking around he noticed how tore up the room looked with large gouges in the walls. It appears he was in the Shrieking Shack. This didn't look good.

"How did you come back too, Weasel?" Harry started out the interrogation, quite angrily.

'Well, this doesn't bode well' Ron thought while cursing up a storm in his mind, debating the best way to go about this.

"Did you really have to stun me? You could've just asked to talk you know. You know, how I'd mentioned last week we could do?" Ron decided to go with casual conversation. Hopefully with non-Ron Weasley behavior he could get some leeway to actually convince them he's not a rapist time traveler.

"Cut the crap Weasel, we know you're not the 11 year old you appear to be. How'd you come back in time too, and after being dead?" Harry Potter didn't seem to want to beat around the bush.

"What makes you think I'm not 11?" Ron queried, hoping for a bit more time to think.

"Do you think we're stupid? You act nothing like you did when you were 11 Weasley. It's obvious you came back somehow. We want to know how, and then you're going to pay for what you did to me!" Hermione gritted out between her teeth.

'Whoa, I'd better just spill my transmigration' Ron thought. 'This is escalating too much. I don't want them to just jump past interrogation and straight to revenge on the wrong guy.'

"Okay, first off, your assumption is totally wrong. I'm not Ron Weasley-" Before Ron could say anymore he was cut off by angry growls and curses. Before it could escalate further, Ron loudly continued. "Just listen alright?! I'm not Ron Weasley. I died in my world. I don't know how it happened, but when I woke up again, I was in this body, at the hospital, with a jaw wired shut."

Looks of disbelief were cast his way. Ron ignored this and continued. "It's true. Whatever you did to Ron before I woke up seems to have, I don't know, killed him, cast his soul out, I don't know. I don't know how I ended up in his body. I just know that I died as Carl Davis, 28, when I was run over by a truck. When I regained consciousness I was Ron Weasley, 11 years old. The thing that threw me for a loop is that in my world, magic doesn't exist." He paused for a bit, before modifying his statement. "Well, actually I can't say that with complete assurance. After all, if there was magic there and it was hidden then I'd never know. I was a muggle after all."

With looks of disbelief Harry and Hermione started whisper-arguing about what I've said so far. Finishing up their argument, which Hermione won, which seems to result in continued questions.

Hermione turned to Ron and asked, "Why do you assume that you're in another world?"

Looking back and forth between them, Ron decided to go all in. "Because in my world the Harry Potter series is a very popular work of fiction books. They even turned it into a series of movies. Each book corresponded to one of your years at Hogwarts, or would have been if you hadn't had to go on some crazy scavenger hunt your seventh year. The first book was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Well, actually the original title was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but they changed the title for the American release."

Looking back and forth between the two, Ron continued. "I know how difficult this will be to believe. Back home there is an abundance of fantasy, science fiction, science speculation, comics, fanfics, and other works that deal with multiverse theories, the idea that there are infinite universes out there, some of them may not even run on the physics of the universe that we have here. And there's been the idea floating around in some of the more speculative works of fiction that authors kind of tap into the frequency of another universe to get ideas for their works of fiction. So in my original universe, someone has written about your life."

Ron paused, to see if there were any questions.

Hermione seemed to be thoughtful. "Multiverse theory? Different universes? Wait, what was that one you said, fanfics? What are those?"

Ron hummed thoughtfully, wondering how deep he wanted to go into fanfics. "Well, when some work of fiction is very popular, it will have a following of fans. I've been in the wizarding part of the world for this past week, so I have no idea how close the mundane world is to mine. Do you have a TV show called Star Trek or Dr. Who here? Or a trilogy of movies: Star Wars?"

"Yes, to all of those." Hermione replied.

"So the original work would be called canon. That's the baseline. But lots of fans speculate about what could happen in those stories if things had been just a bit different. What if Anakin Skywalker had found out about his kids right after his wife died, found them, and raised them in the dark side? Or what if finding his kids was the impetus he needed to break away from the dark side and return to the light? Or a thousand other what-ifs. That's what fan fiction is. The what-ifs. There's a lot of fan fiction associated with the Harry Potter universe." Ron stated casually.

Harry's face had turned red and he muttered, "As if being the freaking Boy-Who-Lived wasn't enough."

Ron decided to mess with Harry a bit. After all they'd stunned him and dragged him here none too gently. It's only fair to get a bit of payback. "Yeah, but in some of those works of fiction you're not the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Thank goodness." Harry muttered.

"You're the Girl-Who-Lived." Ron continued, thoroughly enjoying the coughing fit Harry went into.

"What? Just, what?!" Harry exclaimed!

"Yup. Sometimes in these universes you're born as a girl. Sometimes you get changed into a girl, either as something a Death Eater like Draco does, or something Riddle does. The worst thing is? 85% of the time the authors name you Harriet. Like, they aren't imaginative enough to give you a flower name like your mum and aunt; nope they name you a female derivative of your male name. Sad really." Ron concluded while Harry just gaped with his mouth opened like a fish while Hermione was trying to stifle her snickers.

"And that's not even the worst of these fanfics by a long shot. But, I don't think you want to hear about that" Ron ended, hoping Harry would take the bait.

"What's worse than that?" Harry exclaimed!

'Hehe, hook, line, and sinker.' Ron thought.

"Well, aside from the fact that being a girl can't be all that bad, there are the relationships they put you in when you're still a dude that are just odd. I mean, many of them aren't that bad; some are total fantasies where you get a harem of all the good looking witches. No, the really bad ones are horrifying. In these stories, after years of conflict, back and forth fighting, you realize who your true love is: Draco Malfoy."

Ron paused, because Harry was gagging so much he didn't think he'd hear his next words. "Or the reason Snape hated you all these years wasn't because your dad stole your mom from him. It was because your mom stole your dad from him and you remind him so much of your dad. You were the reminder of his lost love."

'Okay, I'd better stop now, no more.' Ron thought as Harry actually puked in the corner.

"Okay, okay, I'm kind of sorry to bring that last one up, seeing how you reacted to the very idea. But only kind of. You guys did stun me and, by the way I feel, dragged me none too gently here to interrogate and probably kill me. So I don't feel too bad for that little bit of petty revenge." Ron stated casually while observing the two Potters to gauge their reactions. They did look vaguely guilty at the casual mention of murder. "Now, do you still need me to prove that I'm not Ron Weasley? Are wizard oaths on one's magic a thing here that I could use to prove it? I haven't been here long enough to find out."

"Give us a few minutes." Harry muttered disconsolately as they walked out of the room to talk privately.

While the Potters were out of the room, Ron closed his eyes and started looking through the store trying to find something that could be used to protect himself if Harry and Hermione decided to do something drastic to him, life veritaserum or obliviations. He found a one-time use item that would work, but only for the next 6 hours. 'That'll do' Ron thought as he purchased and used it. 'I don't expect this interrogation will last that long, at least hopefully not. And if they decide at the end to go with obliviations, I could pretend real hard that my memory is gone.'

When Harry and Hermione returned, they explained they would require a wizard oath of Ron that he wouldn't lie to them. Ron countered that he wouldn't give such an open ended oath that would last his whole life. What if he told a white lie to spare their feelings on reflex and lost his magic? After some back and forth negotiations Ron gave an oath that the story he'd told them so far has been the truth as he understands it, and he would answer questions as truthfully as possible for the next hour. After swearing the oath they would return his property to him as a sign of good faith that they wouldn't have bad intentions toward him.

After giving the oath, and getting his wands and backpack back, Ron went on to explain what he remembered of canon Harry Potter and this particular fanfic of it as well as his experience in this world. "When I first woke up in the Hospital I was really confused, then I found out I was in the body of Ron Weasley, and it wasn't canon…Then we arrived at the Great Hall that morning Molly attacked you two at breakfast. That was when I realized exactly what was going on, and what was in store for this body if I didn't act to change things as much as I could. In the story I read, if Ron Weasley was still occupying this body he'd have charged you, getting a swift kick to the nads, necessitating another trip to the healer. Over the next couple months he would be getting regular ball bashings until he'd be wearing a metal cup. One more whack and he'd lose his manhood. Unfortunate for him that he ended up in the bathroom the troll wandered to. I won't comment if that was by happenstance or if it was orchestrated" Ron commented with a smile at Harry and Hermione. "Not like the little rapist in training didn't deserve it. Well, he got whack in the balls by the troll club, and they did save his life, but alas he had to have a sex change operation because he'd never grow to be a man. I think they changed his name to Veronica or Ronda or something like that." Ron concluded to howls of laughter.

After the laughter died down, Ron continued, "You need to understand, that it's been years since I read this particular story, so I'm a little fuzzy on every little detail. And even if I remembered every detail it's not like the author wrote every little thing that happens from September 1st to Christmas Day. So I'm not trying to hold back information because of some stupid reason like "it might change the timeline" cause I've already changed it. Originally Weasley would have been sorted into Slytherin, and Pettigrew wouldn't be caught yet. You would have sent the aurors in the next week or so to catch him. I didn't want to wait around for you guys to act, because I might very well have ended with my balls smashed. So first thing I did was get him arrested. There was no way I was going to sleep with the creep in my room." Snorts and nods of agreement sounded out.

Ron continues to explain what he remembers of what would have happened, culminating with Dumbledore putting a tracking charm on their school trunks. The trunks would be put in the Room of Requirement while everyone traveled to Australia, and Dumbles would follow the tracking charm to the RoR. The RoR would give him the battle with a Voldemort possessed Harry Potter that he so desired while everyone was down in Australia, then Dumbledore would turn himself in to be locked up for dementia in St. Mungos.

"And that's where the story ends. You got your revenge, saved your families, made friends, changed Ginny and Luna's life for the better, set the course so that wizarding Britain could come out of the dark ages, and the future looked bright" Ron finished up with a smile.

When Ron finished telling the story, everyone just sat there in silence. No one was quite sure where to go from here. Harry and Hermione did their silent communication thing, while Ron waited to see if they had any questions.

Harry was the first to break the silence, offering an apology for attacking first. Ron just waved it off, explaining that he understood the circumstances, and was glad they at least decided to question him first.

"What do you plan on doing now?" Hermione questioned Ron.

"Learn some magic!" Exclaimed Ron. "I mean, I grew up without it for 28 years, and now I get to go to freaking Hogwarts! Everyone back home would be so jealous they'd drown me in spit if they could!" He laughed. At their dubious glances Ron explained, "Have you ever read The Hobbit or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?" At their nods of affirmation he continued, "For me, attending Hogwarts in this world is just like being able to go on the quest with Bilbo, or visit Cair Paravel. It's a fantasy come true. So I'd be a fool to take it for granted. I'm going to learn everything I can, then go travel the world, exploring the hidden magic of the world. Eventually I'm planning on making a magic space ship and try to travel to other stars. It's going to be a grand adventure!"

They talked about that and other applications magic could be put to use in technology for an hour or so, including Ron's theory about how divination could be useful. Unfortunately Hermione told him she didn't see much hope about that being true, from what she had researched. Ron replied that if it wasn't oh well, but he still planned on looking into it sometime in the future.

Before they broke up their meeting, Ron asked a few questions about some muggle technology companies. Unfortunately since they had so much going on the first time they were in 1998 they weren't able to tell him anything about if Microsoft, Apple, and other such companies got as big here as they did in his world. So he asked them if they could have someone check into if they even existed right now. If they did, he explained he'd like to invest in them and several other technology and telecommunication companies. Ron told them about how big the internet and technology companies got by the time he had died in 2020. If they invest in them now in 10 to 20 years they would be rich and not have to worry about money.

Ron figured he could always get some goods from the Room of Requirement made and pass it off to the Potters to sell for some capital. His hope to make stuff from the RoR to sell to the system had turned out to be a bust because of Rule 2C: Effort must be put into user's actions to award points. Apparently the system didn't think asking the RoR to make stuff to sell constituted effort on his part. 'Lousy, cheap system.' Ron grumbled to himself halfheartedly.

Even though Ron couldn't use the RoR to game the system, he could still get profit out of it. Thinking up to there, Ron decided he could even sell a couple of UMALTs to the Potters. So he went into sell mode. Explaining to them that he'd found a few of these trunks in the lost and found he pulled out a couple of UMALTs that he'd made without the extensive library already loaded. No need to expose too many secrets, he was already pushing the boundaries with these trunks as it was. And Ron was sure with Hermione's personality she'd enjoy getting all the books personally to load up her trunk. Yup, Ron was totally doing them a favor by not giving them the full library. It totally wasn't because he was still wary of them.

After showing the Potters the trunks, Ron offered to sell the trunks to them if they would help him get set up with someone to invest the money for him in those tech companies. He was still only 11 after all, there's a lot he couldn't do on his own, while the Potters had money and adults willing to trust them with odd things like this.

After everyone was satisfied with the deal they worked out, they started walking down the passage to Hogwarts. As they were walking Harry asked, "So, do we call you Carl from now on?"

"While I'd love to remain Carl, it would look odd. For now I'm going to be 'Ron'. Maybe when I've graduated and start moving around the world I can change my name back." Ron shook his head. "But for now I'm going to have to be Ron. I understand if it'll be hard to interact with me in the future, since I'm wearing this face, and going by his name. So I wasn't planning on trying to be buddies, at least not unless I can change my face, if that helps you any."

"Yes, it would actually be more comfortable to keep a distance." Hermione responded. "It's not that we can't tell how different you are from him, but I still can't stand the look of his face."

"Understandable. And by the way, I don't mind if you tell your inner circle, the people you trust most, about me. In fact I'd prefer it. I really don't want to be shot by your dad if I accidently run into him." Nervously laughing Ron responded.

"Ah, yes. Now that I think about it. That is a distinct possibility." Hermione dryly responded.

"Uurk" Ron responded while pretending to loosen his tie to laughs from the Potters.

After separating from the Potters, Ron checked the time. It was almost dinner time. He decided to just wait in the hall for dinner while continuing his reading and note taking. Once dinner arrived on the table he put away his books and ate quickly so he could return to his room to study.

He'd realized by the ambush of the Potters earlier how vulnerable he was, even inside this supposedly safe school. That feeling of getting one-shot and waking up tied up and bruised did not feel good. He really didn't want to go through anything like that again. Which meant he needed to study and practice defensive magic as soon as possible.

Returning to his empty room Ron opened up the mini-RoR in his trunk in a dueling/target practice arena and got started on practicing the spells he'd read about in his Charms and DADA books. Without anyone to demonstrate the correct gestures and pronunciation it took a while to cast the spells, but Ron wasn't discouraged. He couldn't always wait for someone to teach him spells, or he'd be stuck as an LCD (lowest common denominator). And that would just be shameful. So he took this difficulty as another form of training: Learning Spells from Books Training. It will eventually become second nature to be able to read a spell and cast it within a few attempts. This skill will also become useful for when Ron decides to write his own books. Even if he never publishes, that knowledge will be a valuable resource for his future descendants.

Aside from learning how to learn from a book, this also served as learning how to aim. And boy did Ron need work in this area. There seemed to be almost an art to accurate casting. He definitely didn't inherit magic aim skills. This lack of inherent ability made practicing all the more important. He'd get there one day. He was determined to become a magic sharpshooter. One shot, one kill.

After practicing his spells and getting ready for bed Ron finished his night the same as every other night, practicing occlumency and meditating.

* * *

The next morning Ron started his usual routine early in the morning, running around the pitch, then calisthenics, followed by more running, and stretching/cool down. He could feel the improvements in his strength and fleetness after only 1 week of exercise. Magic made a huge difference in his fitness routine; it amplified the effects of the exercise.

Classes resumed after the weekend and with the exception of Snape being replaced by Horace Slughorn, nothing was too unusual. Ron wondered for a moment what actually happened to Snape. In the original timeline it wasn't until the aurors found Pettigrew hiding out in the Slytherin dorms that they got a good enough excuse to arrest Snape and lessen Dumbledore's powerbase. Clearly something had happened, but since Ron had no further information he could only shake his head and continue with classes.

He also thought that Dumbledore would teach potions for a while, but it looks like Slughorn was talked into substituting quite quickly. Ron could only conclude that some things had changed behind the scenes, maybe as a result of his actions. It wasn't anything bad and he had no ability to change such things even if they were, so he didn't worry about it, merely noted it down.

Professor Slughorn's lessons were a welcome change from Snape's. Slughorn would split the teaching of a potion into four parts. Part 1: History of the potion. Part 2: Ingredients, and how they interacted with each other, heat, and stirs. Part 3: How to prepare the ingredients. Part 4: Execution, or the actual steps of making the potion.

Professor Slughorn was a gregarious individual, and his teaching always included many anecdotes, whether his own experiences brewing or of encountering famous people while going about gathering ingredients and making potions. Sometimes he spent a little too long tooting his own social horn, but his stories were always pleasant and mostly humorous. It kept the students awake and focused at least, so the students were able to learn much more than they thought they were. If that was intentional it was worthy of a Slytherin Head of House.

Classes during this week went smoothly. Ron studiously took notes and asked all his questions: all his doubts about how to cast, how to train his casting, how much training was too much for kids their age, could the amount of training they do affect the amount of magic they have available, or speed up the release of spells. Sometimes he even noticed Hermione looking startled at the ideas behind some of his questions.

Ron wasn't satisfied to just settle for having magic. He wanted to excel. He wanted his magic to be as powerful, versatile, and swift as he could make it. If he was going to be going into danger after school, he needed to have the edge to keep himself alive. Ancient wizard tomb raiding was dangerous, and so was attempting to travel to different stars. The only thing he'd be able to rely on in those situations was his magic, when he'd be cut off from the support system of society. So he couldn't afford not to learn everything he could.

Some of the things Ron learned were quite shocking. While flipping through a bestiary from his library he turned to a random page to see what was there. The creature was named an Oblivator in English. It is humanoid in shape, about 2.5 meters in height, with absolutely no hair. Normally very docile it can be moved around physically or by magic, but no known method of killing it exists. It even shrugs off the killing curse, leading many to wonder if it is even alive. However if anyone were to view its actual face, it would exhibit what, in a person, would be extreme emotional distress by covering its face and crying. Within two minutes of its face being seen it would be enraged and run after whoever has seen its face, killing them in the most brutal way, bludgeoning them to death with its enlarged fists. There is no material or magic that will stop it. After the target is dead the Oblivator will go back to being docile once again. There is only one defense, developed by Parth Agarwal and Mnemone Radford in 1623, the Obliviate spell. If the target is quick enough to react and can Obliviate their memory of seeing the Oblivitor's face, the Oblivitor will become docile once again. This was the true origin of the necessity for the creation of the Obliviate spell. It wasn't for another 66 years, when the Statute of Secrecy was instituted, that the Ministry of Magic started training a regular cadre of Obliviation specialized wizards and witches.

The reason this was especially shocking to Ron was that in his past life he'd enjoyed reading cases from the SCP Foundation (Secure, Contain, Protect) website. He'd always assumed it was fiction, but this was nearly identical to the entry they nicknamed the "Shy Guy". It really made him wonder if his past world actually had magic or if it's another case similar to the Harry Potter franchise where the authors had some kind of tie or connection to things happening in this universe. There is also the possibility he's still in his own world. The first Harry Potter book didn't get published until 1997, so it's possible someone from the wizarding world started publishing the books even in the midst of the war with Riddle. It's not like the wizards would have noticed what was going on with the muggles right at first. By the time they noticed, the Harry Potter franchise would already have been global with no way to stop it.

There really was no way for Ron to determine for sure what really happened at this moment. The only thing he could do is keep learning magic, and when he graduates he'll go to the U.S. to see if there's a birth certificate for one Carl Davis. But that won't be for at least 7 years, so he'll shelve that for now. It'll just mess with his mind if he continues worrying over it.

Firmly setting his mind to ignore this doubt for now, he continued his daily routine of exercise, study, practice magic, occlumency, and meditation through the week. Saturday morning after his workout he opened his stats.

* * *

Name: Ron Weasley

Age: 11

Race: Human

Bloodline: Wizard

Cultivation Methods:

Body Cultivation: None

Energy Cultivation: None

Soul Cultivation: None

Stats

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 10

Constitution: 11

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 11

Charisma: 9

* * *

Ron was pretty happy with what he'd accomplished this past week. Everything had risen by one point. Even though it took the same time to raise his Intelligence and Wisdom from 10 to 11 as it took to raise Strength and Dexterity from 8 to 10 he wasn't discouraged. Either the mental stats are harder to raise, or it's just a matter of the higher they are the harder it is to raise them. As of now he's at least at the average for an adult human in everything but charisma. Throughout the week he'd noticed steady improvement in his casting ability. It was smoother to cast simple spells, and he seemed to recharge a little faster too. His hard work was paying off.

Ron had already started making a log of his activities: exercises, books read, meditation time, magic practice, etc. along with his stats and on what exact date they had risen. In a few months he'll be able to figure out the ins and outs of raising his stats. This information will be important in order to contrast what his gains will be once he finally purchases his cultivation methods.

At breakfast Ron was idly reading his bestiary, committing to memory many of the wee beasties he'd likely run into some time in the future. All of a sudden a packet was slapped down in front of his face by a large grey owl which then snatched his bacon and flew off without so much as a hoot-de-doo.

Absently musing on the idiosyncrasies of wizarding owls, Ron opened up the packet. Inside he found a letter from the Potters that explained that enclosed was his official documents for his identity and proof of ownership of his investment portfolio, as well as contact information for his manager. Ron realized that the Weasleys probably never registered themselves with the muggle government, so he was never really legal per se. After looking at the amount that the Potters invested for him he was silently grateful for their generous nature. 'They probably invested in it too, so they expect to make bank. I guess this is payment for that favor. I'll take it. With this I'll be financially independent before I've even graduated. And if I just keep reinvesting it, I'll be very wealthy by the time I'm 28 again.'

Looking over at the Gryffindor table Ron saw the Potters sitting there, so he gave them a little salute while mouthing a 'thank you'. Gathering up his book and papers he made his way to the library. Now that he had an official identity with the British government, it was time to start getting accredited.

After arriving at the library Ron made his way to the librarian, Madam Pince. After engaging her in questions about the ministry of magic's role in helping wizards and witches get muggle education accreditation, he learned he'd need to talk to his head of house. Thanking her he left the library and trooped his way to Professor Flitwick's office.

After entering and explaining what he wanted to do, namely correspondence courses, he was given the information of who to contact, how much the fees were, and a recommendation letter from Professor Flitwick to include in his application. Thanking Professor Flitwick for his assistance, Ron left his office to fill in the information needed. Thankfully he didn't need to get his parents approval, they were off in Egypt at the moment and he didn't want to go distract them. Well, honestly he didn't want to have to answer questions. So this worked out well for him.

After sending off the application and fees for signing up for correspondence courses, Ron decided it was time to start the next stage of his occlumency training. He felt the past two weeks he'd gotten as good as he was going to get for the time being at feeling the flow of magic in his body. The next step was to sense how foreign magic intruding on one's body and magic felt. He didn't really want to have to explain everything to someone else and ask their help, it would also be unfair to take up their time if he didn't compensate them something. Luckily he had a mini RoR that can be configured to throw the necessary magic at him to practice his ability to sense the disturbance.

Making his way to his room to set up his trunk, he prepared himself to be painted from head to toe, or tickled, or stung. He would set up random low level spells that won't distract him too much from attempting to sense the magic. Opening up the mini RoR he sat down cross legged in the square room and prepared himself mentally. "Begin!" Ron gave the command.


	8. Chapter 8

Ron was not having a good time.

He'd started the day in good spirits. There was something he was looking forward to that day, after all. In the books they'd described how much fun Harry had when he was flying, how free he felt, so anyone would be excited to give it a go. Unfortunately the reality didn't live up to the hype, mainly because the reforms at Hogwarts hadn't extended to the brooms just yet. And Ron had gotten a broom whose cushioning charms had failed, leaving him with a wooden broom handle squeezed between his cheeks.

So Ron was not having a good time.

He'd tried to sit sideways, but that threw everything out of balance, and he almost face planted. Several times. Finally Ron decided that the discomfort wasn't worth the magic of flight, so he landed early and went to explain the problem to Madam Hooch, and ask if she had a different broom for him. When he received a negative reply, he decided he'd just sit this one out until he had a decent broom that wouldn't get so frisky with his backside.

Sitting off to the side he pulled out his Transfiguration homework to finish up his essay. He found that sometimes he had to really struggle to finish some of his essay homework. The reason he had occasional difficulties being that he always felt that brevity and clarity should be highly appreciated by his teachers. So when he was given a specific length his essays had to be, and he succinctly answered all questions posed by the professors and proved he understood the material, he ended up with only half the essay length.

What was he then supposed to write to fill in the last of the needed length? He already got marked down before for using an excessively large font. So he decided to test if using anecdotes he found in extra books were good enough for Professor McGonagall as essay filler. If it wasn't he'd probably have to write down his own experiences when practicing the spells. But really, how many different ways can one say: This is how to cast the spell, the spell was cast; it was a success.

Even after having gone through the public school system in his past life he still didn't quite get educators. They seemed to have particular demands of their students that he just didn't care about. If he understood the theory and can cast the spells what use was-

Ron paused as he thought about it. 'It's almost like Professor McGonagall wants us to regurgitate her lesson on the subject matter back to her. But that would only make sense if she wants us to write the essay as if we were giving a lecture to someone who didn't know the material. Is that what the sneaky lady is doing? What was the saying, something along the lines of only really understanding a subject matter when you can teach it? Hmm, well, maybe next essay I'll write it as if I was giving a lesson as to how I understand it. I'll see if she likes my essay then.'

Ron finished up his totally boring essay, and decided that since it's been a couple days since he'd dropped a line to Ginny, he would pen a letter to her. Her last letter had seemed a mix of bad and bad. She was tolerating the harpy, barely, but Ron didn't give odds of her enduring too much longer, especially because he'd been sure to write all the great and amusing things happening at Hogwarts, to make her jealous and want to make her great escape. He was congratulating himself for being such a great brother for understanding she needed just a few nudges to make the decision to get out of there. It'd make her happier in the end.

And there was no way he was going to include in his letter anything about getting a crap broom and quitting halfway. Nope, he was going to include rave reviews. Why, they'd even had a pickup game of quidditch with 6 chasers on each side and two quaffles going at once. Just because he'd not participated this time around didn't mean it wasn't loads of fun.

Finishing the letter he booked it to the owlery to send off the letter before heading out to his last class of the day, potions. That was another reason Ron was glad to be in Ravenclaw, he had potions with the Hufflepuffs, instead of with the Slytherins and Gryffindors. The classes with either the Slytherins or Gryffindors weren't bad, it's just whenever they were together they were more likely to be…distracted with one-upping the other house. It was frankly annoying.

Speaking of Slytherins who felt they had something to prove, Draco Malfoy was an interesting case. The first couple of weeks when Snape had been around, Draco practically radiated with pride at having his Godfather around as his backup. He must have spread that info around too, because Ron had noticed a couple times where one of the older students had to visibly restrain themselves from hexing the boy when he'd open his mouth at the dinner table and would not shut up about how important he was.

Ron couldn't quite figure out how his brain worked. Was he starved for affection at home because his daddy was too busy for him with all the political machinations? Or did his mum drown him in attention so when he arrived at school and found that most of the students didn't give two shits about him, he couldn't handle it? A combination of the two, possibly?

When the potions had been brewed to an acceptable level Ron separated his cauldron into three parts. He'd made this anti-itch cream as close to perfection as he was going to be able to get as a new student. One bottle went to Professor Slughorn for grading. One bottle went to the inventory to sell for Store Points. And the rest of the batch went into his expanding inventory of useful potions and unguents. Never know when it'll be useful to have anti-itch cream on hand.

Ron had found out that each potion he'd brewed had gotten him only a single point from the system store. He figured out that if the potion was too poorly made because Snape was hovering over and distracting you at the most critical moment, then the store wouldn't buy the potion. He assumed that when he started making more complex potions he might get a couple more points for each sold.

Unfortunately the store only bought one potion per batch brewed. 'Darn this system for being stingy!' Ron complained, while secretly he was still just having so much fun with the subjects he was studying.

* * *

Later that night Ron determined that he was ahead enough in his class readings and caught up on homework, so he would start learning Ancient Runes. This was something he had great expectations for. If there was any way to make a magical spacecraft then it would have to be through runes or enchanting, probably both. From what he'd been able to gather so far runes seems like it would work like programming script.

Magic would be applied through the correct rune and, depending on the rune order and conditional statements, a magical effect would be applied. But all that would be dependent on applying magic in the first place, and providing the correct input to enact the carved runes.

Enchantments on the other hand are the method of creating magical artifacts that has a permanent magical effect. Enchanted items have two components: the magically prepared material that can hold permanent spells, and the actual spells themselves. An example would be a pair of magical binoculars. They would be spelled to always provide zoomed in vision.

Runes and enchantments are often used in conjunction to create magical devices. One example would be omnioculars. The enchantments would include the binocular function and the record, memory, and playback functions. The runes would be used so that when the different buttons are pressed the omniocular would zoom in or zoom out, start recording, and playback the action.

It is possible to make omnioculars using only runes or only enchantments, however doing so would be very difficult for the wizarding world to accomplish at this time. The methods they use at this time to carve runes or enchant objects would make it too time consuming and costly to use either method. So they split the difference and found the easiest, quickest, and cheapest method to make omnioculars.

After Ron learned these details about runes and enchanting he had decided that he'd spend his time during these 7 years to learn runes in depth. He decided he wouldn't go into depth on enchanting until his N.E.W.T. years or even after graduating from Hogwarts. Of course this all depends on how quickly he learned. If he got too far ahead of the curriculum he'd simply have to add more to his study load.

Once Ron had finished reading the first chapter of his Ancient Runes text, he put the book down to think about a strategy for learning Ancient Runes. He decided to use flash cards that he could carry around to study whenever he's got a free moment was a good idea. He could draw the runes on one side and the rune name on the other. He'd better make two sets for each rune, now that he thinks about it. One set for just the rune and the name of the rune. The other set for the rune name and the effect of the rune. Then he can use the flash cards to practice remembering the meaning, name, and shape of the runes.

With that decided he started his pre-bed routine: spell casting, occlumency, and meditation.

* * *

Ginny had finally made her escape from Muriel's harpy nest to the Lovegoods. She didn't last 9 days. If she wasn't trying to endure because their parents made her promise she'd probably have been out of there in 2 days. The woman is a menace.

On a different note that was pretty funny, while at Luna's place Ginny made acquaintances with the Potters. It seems she's made Hermione her new hero. Seeing how a woman can be strong and stand next to her man kicking butt instead of being the "fainting princess waiting for her knight in shining armor" trope that Molly always went on about just spoke to her inner spark plug Ron supposed. Of course it didn't help Molly's case that Molly was not the demure housewife that she always harped about. Kids like to rebel against their parent's hang-ups like that.

* * *

The new muggle/wizard culture introduction classes had progressed enough so that they were allowed to have a field trip to an amusement park. There really is nothing quite like it in the wizarding world. The closest the wizarding world gets to roller coasters is broom riding, but with brooms the person is in control of the ride. A huge part of the thrill of these rides is that the rider is not in control during the ride, making it more adrenalin pumping.

It had been very entertaining for Ron to see the wizard raised kids being introduced to a shopping mall and the amusement park. It was almost like they were muggle kids being introduced to magic for the first time.

Ron had a theory that it had to do with the sheer variety and newness of so much of the things in the muggle world. The magical world had a much, much smaller population and with the culturally hidebound world they lived in there wasn't much innovation. In a society where most of the entertainment comes from quidditch, radio, and books, the sheer variety that some 5 billion people can come up with is bound to entertain.

At first Ron had been a little annoyed to be forced to go on this little field trip. It wasn't like he hadn't been to these kinds of places before. But as he watched the other kids just be kids, their sheer joy and enjoyment couldn't help but touch his heart a bit. He decided it wasn't so bad hanging out with these kids after all.

There was something Ron hadn't really considered at first when he'd decided to not make any close friends. He'd been basing his cynical decision making on canon, where everyone followed along with the slandering of the newspaper and the ministry. But he'd forgotten that because so many changes had been going on because of what the Potters were doing with the help of Black and some others, that these kids had the opportunity, while they were young and impressionable, to break away from the old school prejudices. They had the opportunity to really become decent people.

Ron didn't fully comprehend this aspect of the change going on in wizarding Britain, but he felt it that day at the park.

* * *

After having felt that sense of freshness from their field trip and taking a day off his intensive studies, Ron took the next few days to really look around and observe the interactions of his classmates. He even interacted with them a bit more at meal times instead of sticking his nose in a book. It was…enjoyable.

But one of the things he noticed was the students who weren't fitting in to the new spirit of things. There were some in every house that seemed to have foul moods. And one of the worst of those was his brother Percy. He just seemed to be bottling up all his negative emotions and glaring at everyone, especially Oliver Wood (who seemed to be getting close with Penelope Clearwater) and the Potters.

Ron did not like the way Percy was acting. He vaguely felt that something might have happened to Percy in the original story, even if he couldn't remember what. So Ron wrote a letter to Arthur and Molly, telling them that Percy didn't look like he was doing so well and they may want to talk to him.

Unfortunately before the Weasleys could even get his letter, the next day Percy went missing. It seems he ran away.

With there being nothing Ron could do about it, he shrugged and returned to his daily routines. He'd changed his routine a bit, spending more of his study time in the library and other places he could interact with his classmates.

After the field trip Ron had realized that there were a number of reasons he'd used to justify to himself why he wasn't interacting with his peers. That he was mentally older than them. That they were sheep, not like him! There was even the idea that he'd be able to play least-in-sight from the Potters, because truthfully he was a little scared that they'd be irrational enough to take revenge on him for Ron Weasleys past transgressions.

It wasn't until he'd enjoyed himself so much hanging out with everyone on the field trip that he'd come to realize how much these little fears had been affecting his behavior and attitude. He'd realized that part of enjoying life is to have people to enjoy it with. If he had no friends even if he found the most amazing piece of magic ever, there'd be no one there to share in his joy of discovery. And that would just be sad.

So he'd resolved to at the very least make friendly with everyone. It was a step in the right direction. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither were friendships.

* * *

A week and a half later, there was a sensational article in the Daily Prophet. Lucius Malfoy had been arrested. Malfoy had been caught strangling the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, while Malfoy had been wearing his wife's dress. He of course claimed he'd been imperiused into doing it. Why not, that defense worked for him before.

This created the opening that the DMLE needed to question him with veritaserum. They found out that the Death Eater's couldn't be coerced by the Imperius spell to take the dark mark. After Malfoy was questioned, it opened up the way for all the former Death Eaters to be questioned too. Some were able to run, but most were caught and questioned with veritaserum.

Draco Malfoy found out that he had become Draco No-Name; both his parents were in jail for being Death Eaters and other crimes. He didn't seem to handle it well and blamed the Potters quite vocally. One morning he didn't show up at breakfast, no one could find him until the first years were on their way to Herbology and Draco startled everyone by screaming loudly from where he was hung upside down by his feet from one of the towers.

He didn't handle that well, and seemed to have finally learned a little caution. Or at least fear. At the very least he started to keep his mouth shut from then on.

* * *

The last week of October the muggle/wizarding culture class had another field trip. This time it was to the Ministry for Magic. Ron found it quite boring except for one incident where the Minister got the DMLE to spice it up a bit by simulating a hostage crisis. It turned pretty embarrassing for the Ministry when two 1st years, the Potters, managed to stun the attacking aurors. After that they just went about with the tour. It was pretty boring compared to going to an amusement park, which is probably why the Minister set up such a silly thing for the students. He didn't want his noble ministry to suffer in comparison to a muggle attraction.

* * *

Halloween was a bit exciting. Riddle and Quirrell still staged their "Fainting in the Great Hall with News of a Troll" skit. Harry managed to use his mother's protection to expose the fact that Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort aka Lord Thingy. If anything, the face on the back of Quirrell's head was even more disgusting than the movie portrayed. For one thing you can't smell anything from a movie. Once that turban came off it was like a stink/rot bomb went off in the great hall. Several students couldn't handle it and puked all over their shoes.

Ron made sure to be in the Great Hall for that show, in order to not run into a trolls club balls first. Sadly for Draco No-Name, he did not make the same decision, and somehow managed to take a club to the balls. Unfortunately for Draco, he ended up in the same situation as Ron Weasley did in the fanfic, namely getting changed into a girl. Ron noticed how amused the Potters were a couple days later when that piece of news made the rounds. He made no guesses as to whether the Potters were responsible for that set-up or not. Ron figured it wasn't his business, since it wasn't his balls on the line.

Because of the attack on a student and the possession of a teacher by Voldemort it was discovered that Dumbledore had set up a trap on the third floor to try to entice Voldemort into it with the Philosophers Stone as bait. After the DMLE investigated the happenings, it was found out that Percy Weasley had attempted to best the so called obstacle course and gotten eaten by the Cerberus. According to Percy's journal he felt he he'd lost everything worthwhile in his life, and at the time of his disappearance everyone thought he'd simply run away, but now they found out he'd been attempting to gain some kind of glory by running the obstacles, only to lose his life.

This triple tragedy was the last straw for the ministry and the board of governors. With no more trust in Dumbledore's decision making, he was sacked. Charges were levied and it was determined he'd get a trial soon.

Unfortunately there was some dumb auror who still had reverence for Dumbledore, and had a moment of "distraction" which allowed the man to escape. He kept a low profile over the next two months leading up to Christmas, hiding out and biding his time until he could confront who he thought was Voldemort possessing Harry Potter's body.

* * *

As Ron was sitting on the plane flying to Australia he was pretty surprised. He knew that the Potters would be spending their first years Christmas in Australia with all their classmates that were friends, but he didn't expect to be invited too. He hadn't interacted with the Potters except a few words in class. He'd expected the fact he was wearing Ron Weasley's face to be a huge factor in not inviting him to come along.

After some thought, Ron came up with couple ideas, or factors, that could have resulted in him being invited. First of course is that he isn't Ron Weasley. Second is that he hadn't been acting like a fan boy trying to ingratiate himself to the Potters. He'd given them the needed distance to come to terms with the situation. It could also be to give the adults, namely the Grangers, Black, and Tonks a chance to see and interact with him to assure themselves that he really isn't Ron Weasley.

Whatever the case may be Ron decided he wouldn't worry too much about it and just enjoy the vacation. Opening his stats window, he saw that he met the requirements and was ready for the upgrade to the Uzumaki bloodline that he would purchase this evening before bed.

* * *

Name: Ron Weasley

Age: 11

Race: Human

Bloodline: Wizard

Cultivation Methods:

Body Cultivation: None

Energy Cultivation: None

Soul Cultivation: None

Stats

Strength: 15

Dexterity: 15

Constitution: 15

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 15

Charisma: 15

* * *

Ron had found that after getting to 11 in the physical stats he wasn't getting as much increase for the same amount of exercise. So instead of increasing his workout time, for now, he'd experimented and found out his mini-RoR could simulate a gravity training room like in Dragon Ball Z. He fell in love with his UMALT all over again!

Ron decided he wasn't going to be able to do anything too overboard, like immediately training in 10x earth gravity. He began small, with 0.1 increases; it seemed to work well. At 15 strength he was basically 1.5 times as strong as an average adult male, so he was working out in 1.6 gravity. It worked well for increasing his physical stats, going just past his limits on his workout, but not injuring himself.

This style of workout also kept a good balance between strength, endurance/constitution, and dexterity/agility. Too heavy a gravity and he'd be working mostly on strength to the detriment of dexterity. Too light and he'd mostly be focused on dexterity to the detriment of strength. Too long of a workout he felt would be focused on constitution to the detriment of both strength and dexterity. So it was a difficult balance to get a heavy, intense workout that lasted long enough but allowed him to also work on movement/agility.

Once Ron got his shadow clones working on replacing him in class, he'd be able to increase his workouts in all three fields, as well as more study and meditation. He couldn't wait for the gains fairy to visit, it was so rewarding!

* * *

When they arrived at the Potters home in Australia Ron found that one of his guesses had been correct. The adults wanted to speak with him. After sending all the other students off to their rooms they asked Ron to come speak with them in a room set up as a study. 'Hmm, didn't even give me time to settle. Guess they want to interrogate and lay down rules here. What to do, what to do.' Ron idly thought to himself as everyone was settling into their seats.

Before any introductions or chit chat, Black started the interrogation, and he didn't look too pleased to see him. 'Guess he is the least stable, having been in Azkaban for a decade must leave a mark on you.'

"So, how does it feel to take over the body of a rapist?" Black nastily asked to the visible disconcertion of everyone present. Apparently he won right of first question, even if he's taking it in a too sensitive direction.

'Humph, if he thinks I'm going to be cowed into bowing down and asking forgiveness for something I never did and have no reason to feel guilt over, he's got another think coming.' Ron angrily thought.

"Pretty decent, I mean I get to occupy the body before it's actually even hit puberty, so no, I haven't actually raped anyone. And I popped in the body at the right time, when he was unconscious on a bed. I mean, imagine how awkward it would be if I popped into the body right as it was taking a dump or wiping or something. That would truly be a shit deal." Ron laconically stated, while everyone didn't quite know how to react to what he'd said. There were a few faint smiles.

"By the way, I hear congratulations are in order Lord Black. You and Mr. Lupin are getting married." Black is confused at the strange change in direction. "It's great in this day and age that two such fine strapping men can admit their feelings for each other and join their futures together as man and wife. Errr. Man and man? Pack?" Turning to Harry Potter he asked, "Is that a little too cliché? Equating their wonderful homosexual marriage with being a pack just because one is a werewolf and the other is a dog-i-magus?"

"We're not marrying each other! We have women, beautiful women!" Shouted Black, flustered at the idea of him being gay with Lupin.

"Oh, sorry, guess I got the wrong universe then. So you're definitely not gay for Lupin? What is he not man enough for you?" Ron confirmed. Meanwhile the Potters were cracking up, especially Harry. Finally, someone else to feel the uncomfortable sickening burden of possible what-ifs.

After incoherently sputtering a bit, Black managed to question, "Just, why? Why would you put that image in my mind?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Ron replied, "It was funny?" in his most innocuous tone.

"Fine, you got me. But expect retribution!" Declared Black.

"I don't know what you expected from me, coming in with such a sensitive and offensive question right off." Ron replied, not giving an inch. "We haven't even met or been introduced. After being given this invitation that I totally didn't expect and wouldn't have accepted normally because of my ugly mug, I was assured it would be fine." He looks at each of the individuals in the eyes before continuing. "I'm aware of what Ron Weasley had done in the past future that will never be, but I'm not him." Ron finished in as firm a tone as he could manage.

After being introduced to Dan and Emma Granger, Remus Lupin, Tonks (just Tonks), Sirius Black, and Hestia Jones, and pleasantries were exchanged, the questioning continued in a more amiable manner.

Talking about the many possible permutations that their lives could have been seemed to be a particularly interesting topic for them. Some of the ideas seemed very outlandish to them, like having multiple animagus forms, Harry being a phoenix or dragon animagus, or the idea of Neville having a harem to rival the size of Harry's harem.

Some of the ideas made them wonder at the possibilities of magic. Like ways to cure lycanthropy, traveling to different worlds or the effects of having basilisk venom and phoenix tears in the bloodstream of their bodies.

Dan Granger seemed to particularly enjoy the story of both him and Emma being part of a secret agent society of Dentists that no one in their right minds wants to mess with, and when the Death Eaters threatened their daughter and her boyfriend they went into action. Capturing and interrogating Death Eaters, working up the chain of command until they'd cleaned them all up, including Riddle. The fools never saw muggle methods and technology coming!

After a couple of hours of talk Ron was finally released by everyone to go to his own little room to rest until dinner, which was a barbeque on the beach. He exited the room, laughing that he still heard Black loudly claiming he wasn't gay. A prank that just kept giving.

He enjoyed chatting with his sister, Ginny, and Luna. He hadn't had the opportunity to really talk to them at the field trip to the amusement park. Throughout the conversation Luna had her head cocked to the side, looking at him strangely.

When Ginny left to get a drink Luna took the opportunity to ask him a question that made him choke on his own drink. "Who are by the way? You're certainly not Ron Weasley."

Thinking about it before answering he decided that the Potters probably hadn't told her anything about him. It must be the unique insight that Luna brings to life. Well, no need to admit to it for now. "Hmm, I'm certain that I'm Ron now. Can't go about being anyone else now, can I?"

Humming thoughtfully for a bit she continued, "I suppose not. But you seem so much more like an Edmund, or even a Carl for that matter."

'The bombs this girl drops so casually.' He thought to himself incredulously.

"Maybe I'll be Carl later. For now I'm sticking to Ron." He faintly affirmed.

Nodding her head she changed the subject just in time for Ginny to get back. While Luna continued on talking about different things with Ginny, Ron started pondering on how Luna could possibly have come to her conclusion so quickly, or at all. It boggled the mind.

At one point Luna started talking about her "imaginary" animals again. Even though Ron could tell that Ginny thought it was silly, she didn't try to shut Luna down, just letting her talk. 'Looks like Ginny has matured in this short time. It's obvious she doesn't care about these animals, but she knows Luna does, so she lets her ramble on about it. What a good friend she's turning out to be.' Ron mentally nodded in approval while stroking his old man Chinese beard.

Suddenly something that Luna was describing stuck out in his mind. Mentally shaking his head in disbelief, thinking, 'nah, couldn't be.' But the more he listened with an open mind, the more convinced he was. Asking Luna if she had drawn these down, or could draw one, she admitted she had some in her luggage. Ron then made the request if he could see some of the drawings.

At first she seemed a little tentative, like she expected him to make fun of her for it. 'Heavens, this girl hasn't even been to Hogwarts and has already had to deal with people mocking her for this to the point it's made her wary. Such an unfortunate child.' Ron decided that if he ever saw anyone bullying Luna he'd send at least a couple of stinging hexes their way, if not more powerful spells.

After assuring her with promises on pudding, that couldn't be broken unless you wished to lose all pleasure in consuming sweets, that he wasn't going to make fun of her and was just interested in seeing what they looked like, she finally made her way to get some pictures.

Unexpectedly for Ron, he got glares and warnings from Ginny that if he made fun of Luna he'd regret it. This opened up Ron's eyes to realize that it was probably Ron Weasley who'd bullied Luna into that wariness in the first place. Ron could only sigh in exasperation at having to deal with the fallout of Ron Weasley's stupidity. He really wished he could kick his butt, even though it was impossible to do so now.

After looking at some of the pictures, Ron was certain his suspicion were correct. Even though Luna named her creatures something totally different from what they were called in the game, he saw that many of her creatures were the Zerg. There were even a few Protoss and Terran machines as well among her creatures.

'She must be one of those who have strong linkages to different universes. That could explain how she seems to inexplicably know things. She probably gets echoes from other Luna's. And that is probably how she is able to see these creatures. Amazing.' Ron couldn't get over his shock and awe for several minutes.

Ron decided that he wouldn't tell Luna this directly. She doesn't really have much trust in him, and he really doesn't want to confirm for her that he isn't Ron Weasley, even though she must know already, or at least suspect. She is Ginny's best friend, and he wouldn't want to burden her with such a secret she would have to keep from her friend. He decided he'd pass this information of her inter-dimensional seeing abilities to the Potters, and let them decide how to suggest this possibility to Luna. She trusted them, so it'd be better to come from them.

After talking to the Potters alone about Luna's gift where they both were amazed at the sheer oddness of such an ability, Ron retired for the night.

Ron entered his room, and prepared to have the system add the Uzumaki bloodline to him. Opening the store, and purchasing it, he got a prompt: [Apply purchase? Yes/No].

Selecting to continue, nothing seemed to happen for a minute. He then started feeling an itching in his bones. It makes sense it would start in the marrow, where blood is produced. The itching started getting more intense. He could only endure. Then it turned to heat, in his bones and throughout his blood vessels. It was too hot, it burned! He struggled to endure.

Finally, the heat spread though the rest of his body: his organs, muscles, and skin. Even his hair felt like it was burning and in pain. He had no idea how he was able to feel pain in his hair, but it was happening. And it didn't feel good at all. Thankfully he didn't have hair down there yet, that would have only made it worse; it already hurt too much!

Finally unable to take the pain anymore he slipped out of consciousness, passing out.


	9. Chapter 9

Groan.

Ron's awareness swam out of the darkness, his body ached all over. Jerking his limbs about in an uncontrolled fashion he managed, after a couple of minutes, to sit up. His eyelids struggled to open, feeling like they weighed too much.

From the sunlight streaming in the window, Ron concluded he'd been unconscious all night long. Verifying that it was nine in the morning of the 23rd, he decided he could go without a workout for one morning. It's not like he would accomplish much, with the way he was feeling.

Looking down at his clothes that were stiff from sweat salt, and feeling incredibly parched, Ron shuffled to the bathroom to drink like a fish. After soaking the desert that was his mouth, Ron opened up his status.

* * *

Name: Ron Weasley

Age: 11

Race: Human

Bloodline: Wizard/Uzumaki

Cultivation Methods:

Body Cultivation: None

Energy Cultivation: None

Soul Cultivation: None

Stats

Strength: 16

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 17

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 15

Charisma: 15

* * *

After looking at his stats, he noticed the 1 point increase in strength and dexterity, and the 2 points increase in constitution.'An unexpected gain is a treasure nonetheless' Ron cheered to himself. 'Looking at it on the status screen seems pretty cool. I'm an Uzumaki now. Hahaha! Ron Uzumaki. Uzumaki Ron. Sounds odd, I bet in Japanese it would translate to something like dumb whirlpool' Ron mocked his gaijin ways.

Finished with the status screen for now Ron showered and changed, before looking in the mirror to see if there were any changes in his body now that he had the Uzumaki bloodline. Over the past few months, ever since he woke up in the body of Ron Weasley he'd occasionally stood in front of a mirror for several minutes at a time. It still occasionally hit him how surreal his life had become, and how different he looked. So Ron used the time to cement in his mind his new appearance and identity.

Peering in the mirror he noticed a couple of small changes. For one, he felt he was a little taller. Measuring himself he found that he had grown an inch overnight. Thinking about how, in the anime of Naruto, many of those high class ninja looked very tall and robust, Ron couldn't help but ponder the effect chakra and ninja training had on their physiques.

Other than an increase in height, nothing seemed to have changed in his appearance. Ron figured he'd either stay the same or maybe it would take a few weeks to months for his changed bloodline to affect things like his appearance. Mentally putting that on his low priority list of things to keep track of, Ron decided it was time to grab some grub. He was starving.

Wandering out of his room, Ron followed the sound of laughter and utensils clinking against dishes. The savory smell of bacon just urged him on faster. He managed to snag enough to eat when he found the dining hall.

After breakfast there were some announcements by the adults as to what their itinerary would be for the break. There were many fun activities planned, plenty of down time, and a double wedding on Christmas was planned. Lord Sirius Black would wed Hestia Jones, and Remus Lupin would wed Tonks. 'He he, is she going to rename herself Tonks Lupin, I wonder. The psychological damage she must have taken in school for being a metamorphmagus while being named Nymphadora must have been immense.' Ron shook his head in wonder at parents with weird naming ideas.

Today's activities centered on the beach and ocean. They would have an hour of gillyweed use available, properly supervised and timed by the adults so they would avoid any accidents with people staying down too long. In order to not lose track of anyone they would split it into shifts, only 6 kids at a time, with three adults supervising. That way each adult would be responsible for two kids at a time.

There was also beach volleyball, surfing, and boogie boarding; while a few of them chose to simply read a book while taking in some sun.

There was something that Ron only really noticed during this day at the beach. His classmates had been influenced by how Harry and Hermione acted in their relationship. Because Harry and Hermione were married and mentally 19-20 years old, even though they were physically 11 and 12, this affected the way they acted. They were far more mature than regular 11 year olds. With the example of how the Potters' relationship was, it seemed some of the young kids were emulating them and getting into a boyfriend/girlfriend type of relationship.

All these kids haven't hit puberty yet, but with a couple of their peers who were highly esteemed being in a relationship, it seems like the desire to emulate them bloomed in their hearts. Ron also figured it was similar to when kids play house or some such. It was a way for them to learn how to interact with others in the way they saw their parents acting.

Ron had mostly been ignorant of this aspect of his fellow student's interactions for two reasons. The first being that he was so focused on his studies, that even when he was studying with his fellow students, he was incredibly focused on studying. So he had missed the subtle byplay of relationship plays before that morning.

The second reason is that he was mentally 28 before coming to this world. There was no way he was going to look at a bunch of 11 year olds for romance. Ron figured he wouldn't be looking to attempt dating anyone until he at least turned 16. Then he could date some 17 or 18 year olds. At least then they'd be matured enough to barely fit the adult category.

So the sight of Neville Longbottom acting like a solicitous boyfriend to Millicent Bullstrode, fetching her drinks and applying sunscreen, really amused Ron that morning. But at the same time he was pretty happy for the boy. It seemed interacting with the Potters had really boosted his confidence in himself. Good for him. And the attention seemed to do Millie pretty good at boosting her own self confidence. Good for them both.

Looking around, Ron couldn't spot any other couples, but there were some possibilities. There were some of the kids who seemed to enjoy spending more time with each than anyone else. Whether or not this would develop and stay the course until they married, no one knows.

One of the things Ron really like about this world is the effect the Potters were having on these kids. Most of their class year had totally abandoned the old viewpoint of how Slytherin and Gryffindor were mortal enemies. Not only that, but all four houses seemed to have come to the realization that they could have friends outside of their house.

At dinner time while looking at everyone interacting, Ron pondered how the future of wizarding Britain had changed in a short 4 months. He didn't know how far ranging the effect would be, but in Britain at least this generation wasn't going to put up with the nonsense that was blood purity based discrimination. And that was a very good thing.

* * *

The next morning during his workout Ron noticed that he finished his sets with more ease than before. It seems that the Uzumaki bloodline, a lineage of ninjas, greatly aided his physical conditioning. It seems he would have to increase his gravity a bit more. 'And if I can't do that I'll run around the Hogwarts Lake 300 times on my tongue! That's the power of youth!' Ron internally yelled, glad that there were no green spandex induced sunsets on this beach, courtesy of Gai and Lee.

After breakfast, everyone staying at the Potters was drafted to assist in preparing for the double wedding that would happen the next day. Decorations were put up, food was prepared. Appropriate clothes were picked out and set aside for the big day. Nervous grooms were fortified with great spirits.

Everything needed for the wedding was accomplished by the early afternoon, allowing the Hogwarts cohort to once again attack the waves with a board. Today Ron attempted surfing for the first time. He wasn't sure if he'd be any good, having never attempted it in his last life. It must have been his increased dexterity, but Ron took to surfing easily, his balance never in question as he caught each wave.

After a few hours of playing in the ocean the wizard and witches gathered around a beach bonfire, roasting hotdogs and smores for dessert. Ron chatted with Ginny and Luna about various things they'd seen while gillyweed diving the previous day.

"…and then we saw this giant fish that was twice as big as we were, it was splotched all grayish and black. It even let us touch it; like it didn't care what we were doing he was so relaxed." Ginny went on in great enthusiasm.

Sometimes the way that Luna described things brought strange images to Ron's mind. "They were like a herd of black spotted zebra fish with yellow fins and swollen yellow lips. I even saw a couple of lion fish eyeing them from a distance, but they seemed to be distracted by the zebra pattern, and couldn't get close enough to pounce." So Ron started picturing actual zebras with yellow legs and lips swimming in the ocean.

Luna always seemed to make unusual connections like comparing fish to zebras. Most people would think Luna was unusually odd, or crazy. While thinking about Luna's ability to connect the weirdest things together in a way that most people wouldn't; but made sense once Ron thought about it, he realized a few things about Luna.

The first thing is that Luna is a very visually oriented person. All the unusual things she'd seen from other dimensions seemed to focus her mind on the visuals. After all, she never smelled or heard the creatures, only just seen them.

Before Luna learned to draw her creatures, she needed to explain what she was seeing to others. So Luna had trained her observation skills to a high degree. However no one had ever seen the creatures she'd seen so she was forced to make comparisons to creatures everyone could see, so that they could get some frame of reference to create a visual picture. This caused her to focus on details to an extreme degree. Many things most people usually don't notice were all within her field of observation.

Second was that Luna's brain didn't actually work different from other people's brains. Everyone communicates and gains knowledge by associating things they see or observe with things they already know. In other words, people have a working database of experiences and knowledge that lets them communicate with each other and learn by making associations. Luna simply has a larger database that includes many things that aren't shared knowledge, so sometimes the things she references aren't understood by anyone but her.

It reminds Ron of a joke he heard from a Filipino in his last life: "Why is there no salt water in Heaven? Because its tubig asin (too big a sin)." If this joke was told to someone who had never heard of Christianity and had the associated knowledge base of what heaven is or what a sin is, they would never understand this joke. The same happens with Luna; she has data that others don't and so they never understand her inside jokes, so to speak.

The last thing Ron realized about Luna is that she is simply insanely smart. She never seems to forget anything. Those times when she seems to space out are her searching her knowledge database for associations to something she's heard or seen or was asked of her. Because Luna has such a huge database, sometimes the search takes a moment, leading to the uninformed thinking she's not altogether there.

All this combined made it so that conversation with Luna was a constant mental challenge for Ron. If he wanted to keep up, he had to keep on his toes, metaphorically speaking. But it was this sense of constantly being ambushed with knowledge and thoughts from ninety degrees from where he expected it to come from that made conversation with Luna so fun and interesting.

The good mood that Ron was in from hanging out with Ginny and Luna seemed to give him more benefits than just feeling good. That night as he practiced his occlumency he seemed to be more able to focus on feeling the disruptions of magic in his body. He advanced a great deal in just this one night. His meditation this night gave him 2 SP, instead of the 1 he had always been awarded before this.

This incident made Ron realize how his mindset affected his practice and learning. If he was in the right mindset it could greatly benefit him.

It was like the difference in the results of potions he made under Snape's tutelage compared to Slughorn's. The potions he had made in Snape's class were of poor quality and were never accepted by the system shop, while the ones he made in Slughorn's class were of much higher quality.

Attempting to focus his mind in learning and meditation while in a poor frame of mind or bad mood was like being in Snape's class. Even if he went through the motions, the results were poor. On the opposite side, being in the proper mindset would cause his results to bear unexpected fruit.

Ron decided in the future he would be more aware of this aspect of his training. If he practiced adjusting his mental state before training, he was sure he would start to reap more rewards for each training session. This would allow him to advance faster than he otherwise would have.

Ron finally went to bed for the night, satisfied with the day.

* * *

The next morning was Christmas day. When Ron woke up he didn't immediately get out of bed. It was his first Christmas in this new life, with a new family. He didn't have strong familial feelings for the Weasleys; he just arrived here a few months ago after all. He did enjoy his time spent with Ginny and the twins though.

He'd spent some time with Fred and George during this last term, and they were invariably amusing. Always ready with a quip, even if it wasn't that funny at first, they plowed through any awkwardness present; keeping the quips coming until they finally hit peak saturation, then somehow it turned funny.

They'd also taught him a few spells, like the one they'd used before to ensure they weren't overheard by anyone nearby. Handy spell that. During the first study time he'd spent at the library Ron had been berated by the librarian for talking too loud and disturbing the study atmosphere for everyone. So he'd apologized, no sense in upsetting her, and ever after had used the spell to mask his conversations, so he wouldn't be forced to be too quiet to be heard when he was talking homework with his classmates.

He'd kept up correspondence with his family that wasn't at Hogwarts, but the only one to write regularly and often had been Ginny. Arthur, Molly, and Bill were busy running an inn/pub in Cairo, which was long hours and low pay. Charlie was not much of a writer though, so Ron didn't really know much about him, mostly what Ginny had written in her letters when Charlie had visited her after she ran off to Luna's place.

From what Ginny had told Ron, Charlie had gone off on Muriel Prewitt for being such a miserable shrew and a torment to everyone around her. Ginny had been very impressed at how far Charlie went to defend her against the enemy; she couldn't stop writing about it for several letters.

So because Ron didn't know his family all that well, he decided to send everyone board games for Christmas. He figured his parents could keep that at their inn/pub for them and customers to play with if they were bored and had nothing to do. He'd sent one that had to do with dragons to Charlie. Maybe they would get a laugh out of it.

He'd brought some different dungeon themed ones for Ginny and his hosts here, the Potters. He'd specifically gotten one just for Sirius Black, Mouse Trap. It was a joke he might get some amusement out of, hopefully.

Thinking that he'd spent enough time musing on his new life and family, Ron got up to get his daily workout quest finished, doing his workout at 1.7 gravity, now that he had 16 strength.

Unfortunately he was stopped before he could get in his workout by a giggling pair of girls, insistent that he come to open presents. Ginny seemed pretty happy this morning, despite being separated from most of her family. Her life had transformed pretty drastically, going through some downs before finally looking up again.

Amused at her exuberance, Ron played about, dragging his feet and grumbling about sisters being up too early in the morning. His teasing not even bothering Ginny, she grabbed his arm and dragged him out to open presents.

Everyone gathered together for the massive pile of presents. Wrapping paper was torn apart and strewn everywhere. It was Christmas.

Ginny was especially happy when she opened her gift from the Potters. It was one of those communication mirrors, and she was able to chat with their parents for a while.

The Potters received a couple of quads that they spent the rest of the morning giving rides to the rest of the students. Ron just sat back and watched. If they offered a ride, he'd rather be the driver. It's not like there were big hills on this beach, just tiny little ones.

At one point the Potters and the adults all huddled up around one of their communication mirrors, talking seriously with whoever was on the other line. 'Looks like they got the news that Dumbledore turned himself in after the Room of Requirement simulated a battle for him between him and a Harry Potter possessed by Voldemort.'

After lunch it was time to get ready for the double wedding. It was a lovely affair for those involved. The brides were beaming and happy on their day. The wedding reception was entertaining; there was food, drink, and dance.

Ron enjoyed the rare event, but when it was over he returned to his room to complete his nightly training in occlumency and meditation.

The next few days of the vacation passed quickly with plenty of activities. They continued to enjoy the beach, but added some sightseeing in muggle areas as well as the wizard parts of the country. They went horseback riding, sailing, and hiking. They went on a tour of the magic school there, and it was gorgeous. Instead of a castle it was a sprawling campus, similar to a college, with separate buildings for the classes, library, dorms, and cafeteria.

Not all their time was spent in activities; down time is important too. Ron made sure to continue reading and learning from his library as well as practicing his spells in his mini RoR. He was making good progress in solo learning spells from books.

Ron had already gone through the first year curriculum, but he wasn't as masterful in his casting as he wanted to be. He still sometimes made mistakes in casting a spell he hadn't done in some time, so he kept drilling. Once he was one hundred percent on casting the spells, he wanted to learn to cast them silently.

Ron had always wondered about how, at the end of Harry's fifth year, those six students had managed to survive the trap at the ministry for magic when they went after the prophecy. And he'd found the answer from learning about two pieces of information.

The first piece is the information about magical maturity. Every wizard or witch has what is known as a magical core. It's what allows them to perform magic. There is much debate about whether the core manufactures magic, or whether it absorbs magic from the magic in the world, making magic accessible to the wizard or witch. Whichever is true, magical maturity happens on the 17th birthday, where the magical core of a person will undergo a metamorphosis, rapidly maturing and growing.

This maturation has various effects on the magic of the witch or wizard. Some will be able to use more power per spell, making their spells hit harder. Some will not get an increase in magic per spell, but they can cast for hours without getting exhausted. Some will receive both increases. And the amount their magic increases varies from person to person.

This varying of power levels after the age of 17 leads to the second piece of information. The Owls are the basic requirements for all wizards and witches because they are all the spells that are able to be cast at the average power level. The first five years of Owls teach all these average spells. The sixth year, or the first year of Newts is focused on learning to cast all these spells silently and proficiently. The seventh year, or the second year of Newts, is designed so any student who, after maturity, has the needed power levels can learn to cast more powerful and complex spells. This is the reason there is so much cramming in the seventh year. They are finally able to cast these spells, leading to the need to learn as much as they can in the last year.

Those who are unable to cast the more powerful spells can still get a Newt in the theoretical subject, but only at the passing level. One needs to be able to cast the spells to get an outstanding. This level of accreditation shows who is more powerful, thereby adding to their resume and reputation.

So because the five years of Owls study curriculum covered pretty much all the spells most wizards or witches will ever be able to cast, once a student finishes fifth year they could theoretically face off against wizards and witches of average power level. The only determining factor in such a situation would be how experienced they are at casting their spells in a combat situation.

Besides using terror and surprise tactics to succeed, most of the Death Eaters weren't powerful wizards or witches. That's one of the reasons Bellatrix LeStrange was so feared. It wasn't just because she was crazy or dark. It was because she was more powerful than the average, so she had spells that most people couldn't defend against. But most of the Death Eaters were actually kind of pathetic, magically speaking.

Another relevant piece of information is that the Patronus spell is one of those spells that can be learned in the seventh year. And even those that barely meet the magical requirements find the spell incredibly difficult to cast. This means that as a third year, for being able to cast the Patronus, Harry Potter was already far more powerful, magically speaking, than most witches or wizards will ever be.

So the answer to how Harry Potters group survived is that a group of 4th and 5th year students that had been practicing their spells all year for combat and defense had faced off against mostly averagely powered Death Eaters. The Death Eaters spell repertoire equaled the students. They did outnumber the students, but Harry Potter was far more powerful than them, and the bowels of the Ministry for Magic are a confusing warren. This led to the result of the Death Eaters being unable to lock down and take down the students.

After a bit of thought Ron concluded that the varying levels of power also answers the question of just why Riddle paid attention to some daft prophecy. Riddle was by far one of the strongest wizards alive. The only one who could threaten him was Dumbledore, but they were pretty equal. Riddle had more power, but Dumbledore had more skill, rendering them about equal. So Riddle was convinced it was just a matter of time before he took care of Dumbledore. Riddle would gain more skill as time passed, and Dumbledore would just get older and feebler.

Then Riddle hears the prophecy: "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…" Time, which used to be on his side, is no longer. He could be facing a situation where he finally manages to get rid of Dumbledore, only to face a greater threat. One with the power to vanquish him. That baby must die, Riddle determined. Even if he knew the whole prophecy, about marking him his equal, Riddle would not be deterred. Riddle, in his hubris, would know there's no way a baby could survive his curse. At worst he would just get one of his minions to cast the actual death curse on the baby. But a baby that could grow to vanquish him just when he was about to win the whole board cannot be left alive!

After thinking about all this Ron started wondering if there was any way to increase the magical cores gains at a person's magical maturity. Could the things they do before their 17th birthday affect the magical capacity and power increase? For example, would staying in a magic rich environment provide more magic to grow their core? Would eating magical creatures and herbs change the quality or quantity of magic available in their body? If they practiced using their magic, would it be like a muscle that will grow and strengthen and increase the capacity when maturity arrives?

Ron doesn't have the answers for now, only questions. He was determined to find some answers before March 1, 1997. And if there aren't any concrete answers to these questions, then he'll just have to try out a few ideas on that date to make the most of his maturity. It is a once in a lifetime chance after all.

* * *

The vacation was over; Ron was seated in the Great Hall with all the students, ready for the welcome back feast to begin. They had returned to England the same way they'd left, flying by airplane; this time from Australia to France. Then they took a portkey from France to Hogsmeade, where they made their way by carriage to the castle.

Looking around at the lively faces, Ron could pick out the students who had gone on the trip just by their appearance. Most were slightly tanned, but one and all, everyone that had gone were beaming in great joy at having the most exciting vacation, ever.

Fred and George of course didn't take a tan, being redheads, but their freckle count had increased greatly. Oliver Wood and Penelope Clearwater were sitting together at the Gryffindor table; she'd probably shift over once the professors got things underway. Those two had helped the adults by being chaperones during the vacation at the Potters. 'Well, "helped" is subjective. If they were together it was a struggle for them to have eyes on anyone but each other, and they were always together!' Ron laughed.

Finally Professor McGonagall stood up and got the students attention. "Welcome back students. I hope you all had a good holiday, and are ready to get back to your studies. I have just a few announcements before we begin the feast. The first is that the board has finally confirmed that Professor Lupin will remain as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

Here Professor McGonagall had to pause for the loud cheers. Professor Lupin had become dear to the hearts of the students; they finally had a competent DADA professor.

"Second, due to the generous donations of various members of our society, we have managed to replace the training brooms for the flight classes." More loud cheers. "And we have gotten sponsors that will provide brooms for each house team to train and play on. The sponsor for Hufflepuff will be Cleansweep Broom Company. The sponsor for Ravenclaw will be Comet Trading Company. The sponsor for Slytherin will be Nimbus Racing Broom Company. And the sponsor for Gryffindor will be Ellerby and Spudmore."

Professor McGonagall paused again for the cheers. Quidditch was very popular among wizards and witches. "And lastly, throughout the rest of the year we will be having visitors come and evaluate many things here at Hogwarts. They will be mostly focused on the curriculum, but they will look at everything. They have an important job of evaluating how Hogwarts is doing its job of educating young wizards and witches, and will determine how we can improve. So it is very important that all students answer any questions they ask you. We want you to be honest in your answers. You won't get in any trouble, as long as you answer honestly. This will allow us to get back to being the premier school for witchcraft and wizardry. Thank you, enjoy the feast."

And with the announcements out of the way, the food appeared on the tables. Ron chatted with his fellow Ravenclaws about their vacations, and what they expected would happen with these visitors, while enjoying the bounty.

Ron was happy about the news of new brooms. The few times they'd have flight lessons last term had not been very enjoyable; he always seemed to get a defective broom. He'd finally just ignored the defects and flew as much as he could, but it hadn't been his definition of enjoyable. Maybe with new brooms he would finally get the flight experience he'd wanted.

After the feast was over, and everyone had turned in for the night, Ron pulled out his notebook of goals. Everything that he set himself to do, and quests that he started, he recorded in this notebook. Looking over what he'd written for down as his goals for the next three months, he was firming his will to accomplish them.

After he adjusted his mentality, Ron started his occlumency training. He would start on the third stage of occlumency tonight: building the mental landscape. This will likely be the longest step. First he'll have to enter his mindscape. To enter his mindscape he needs to follow the flow of his magic to his magic core. When he finds his core he will need to merge with it. Once he's immersed in it, if he's done it correctly, he'll find himself drawn into his mindscape. It will be a representation of his mind and memories. Everyone's mind will be different, but the common elements will be objects littering his mindscape that represents his memories.

He'll have to learn how to will objects into being in his mindscape, organize his memories, and finally prepare defenses and traps.

Settling down he started by feeling the flow of magic in his body. Mentally tracing the flow he followed it back. Forging "upstream" so to speak, he slowly made his way to his core. This was his first time mentally seeing his core, and it didn't look quite like what was described. The core is supposed to be a large glowing orb whose color depends on the person that radiates magic, like a sun radiates light and heat.

However his core looked like two orbs were touching. One of the orbs was twice the size of the other orb. Both orbs were the same color; the center circle was pure white, while radiating out from the white center was a cyan color. Ron didn't understand what was going on with his core. Cores?

Despite the oddity, he could only continue. The alternative would be to stop here, and he had no intention of doing so. Reaching out he touched the larger of the two orbs. Once he started sinking his hand into the orb, it felt amazing. It felt like pure power, electrifying, energizing.

He continued to sink into the middle of the orb, his core. When he finally reached the center he paused for a moment to adjust to the distracting sensations of power. Calming his mind, he felt like he momentarily blinked, and when his vision became clear again, he was inside a whole new world.

Looking around this mindscape world he once more got a shock. It was split into two halves. One side appeared dark, with rubbish littered everywhere. Crumbled buildings and rusted, abandoned cars where haphazardly placed along cracked streets. It was a mess.

The other half appeared filled with light. It was a mountain forest landscape; he could see the edge of a lake shore surrounded by evergreen trees. The landscape was littered with bushes and rocks in between the trees.

Ron then looks down at himself, noticing that his body is not that of 11 year old Ron Weasley, it's 28 year old Carl Davis.

Carl had no idea what was going on with his landscape or what, if anything he could do about it.

While looking at the lake, Carl heard a noise behind him. Whirling around in fear, he started scanning the trashed and abandoned street. 'Why is there a noise here? This is my bloody mind; don't tell me I've imagined monsters.' He nervously thought to himself.

He heard the sound again. It sounded like, sniffling? It was coming from a rusted out car that was missing the tires sitting on cinderblocks.

Approaching the car quietly he noticed it was a Ford Anglia. It was the same car that Arthur Weasley had modified in the movies. It was the car that Ron Weasley and Harry flew to Hogwarts at the beginning of their second year when Dobby kept them from getting on Platform 9 ¾.

Looking inside the rusted car, he notices a small boy curled up on the front seat. Getting closer he can hear the boy is muttering something. Listening hard he can hear him repeating a phrase over and over.

"It wasn't supposed to be that way; it was supposed to be an adventure. It was an adventure. Adventure. Adventure."

At this point he notices the boy is a redhead. Reaching out he lightly knocks on the door to get the boys attention. When the boy looks up, he questions, "Ron Weasley?"

The blank face of the boy changes to anger. Ron Weasley glares at Carl in rage. "Who are you? What are you doing here? Get out!" Ron Weasley screeches, his face distorted and twisted by anger.

At a loss as to what to do Carl simply stands there with an open mouth. Ron Weasley, upon seeing the man doing nothing gave another loud, ear piercing screech, and lunged for Carl through the car window. Ron Weasley's hands curled into claws reached for Carl's neck. Although startled, Carl reacted quickly, backing away while lashing out with his fists to knock Ron Weasley down.

When Ron Weasley sprawled to the ground outside the car, his body started to grow, in just a short moment he appeared as an 18 year old Ron Weasley.

Looking at the situation he's in, here in his mindscape, Carl starts to get a glimmer of an idea of what's going on. Ron Weasley did somehow make the trip back in time, but Carl somehow also ended up in the 11 year old body of Ron Weasley and took control of the body, bumping Ron Weasley to the background.

'Our magic cores are attached to, or part of our soul.' Carl realized. 'So when a magically mature Ron Weasley came back, he brought his mature core, hence the bigger orb I saw. So I guess I'm the smaller orb? But where is the 11 year old Ron Weasley? There should be three cores. Did the older Ron Weasley absorb the 11 year old Ron Weasley's soul and core? Is that why it's double the size as mine?'

Carl kept his guard up while staring at Ron Weasley. Ron Weasley started to growl. "You can't take it from me. I'm on an adventure."

As Ron Weasley climbed to his feet, Carl realized this would be a fight for his very existence. If he loses, he'd probably be absorbed by the insane Ron Weasley before him. With this realization Carl realized that it's kill or be killed here. There is no backing off. So he decided to make the first move.

Stepping forward in a fighting stance, Carl prepared to beat Ron Weasley into submission.


	10. Chapter 10

Stepping forward firmly with his left foot, Carl quickly jabbed with his left fist to Ron Weasley's nose to distract him, rocking his head back. Carl immediately followed up with a full power right to his jaw. Ron Weasley took the full force of the punch while unprepared, falling to the ground.

Carl followed up, intending to get some kicks in while Ron Weasley was down, but he was too slow by a bit. Ron Weasley continued rolling over into a crouch on both his hands and feet. Madness was glinting in his eyes as he growled ferally. He charged Carl, wildly swinging his arms with his hands like they were claws.

Carl, unable to stop his momentum, was slashed on his left arm by Ron Weasley's blade like nails when he tried blocking the wild swing.

Ron Weasley was still crouching low, so Carl used a hammer fist to the top of the head to stop his momentum and drop him a little before low kicking him aside. Carl backed off for a moment to assess the damage he received from the slash.

Blood was dripping down his arm from the wound. Looking at Ron Weasley he noticed his hands seem enlarged with sharp claws. His eyes were red, and his mouth was enlarged with fangs and drool dripping from the corner.

"My adventure! It's mine!" Growled Ron Weasley as Carl was circling him, looking for an opening to make a decisive strike.

Knowing that it was useless to engage in conversation with crazy, Carl feigned a charge that Ron Weasley reacted to, swinging again with those enlarged hands. After narrowly dodging the swing, Carl stepped forward, front kicking Ron Weasleys right knee. With a crack his knee bent backward; unable to stand he fell to the ground, clutching his leg.

Carl maneuvered around him to, wanting to stomp a few vital points, when suddenly Ron Weasley's leg was fine. Ron Weasley wasted no time jumping at Carl. Carl had let his guard down a little, expecting that Ron Weasley wouldn't be able to move after that, and was slow to move. Ron Weasley was able to slash Carl's left thigh, causing him to stumble back and trip on some debris on the street.

Ron Weasley capitalized on his stumble, pouncing on Carl. He crouched over him slashing with his arms: left, right, left, right. All Carl could do was block as best he could, taking damage to his forearms. Blood was flying everywhere from his wounds, and he began feeling faint from blood loss.

'How was he fine after that kick? Why does he have claws?' Carl thought in despair, 'Is this the end? Is this all that I amount to, taken out by this cowardly shit?'

Sensing that he had the upper hand and was about to win, Ron Weasley paused to howl in triumph.

Carl, seeing this display, got angry. He wasn't going down. He wouldn't allow himself to lose here, to this crazy sack of shit. Raising his leg, Carl kicked as hard as he could at Ron Weasley balls. Ron Weasley flew back five feet, and lay on the ground, curled up like a shrimp.

Getting to his feet, Carl came to a realization about what was happening here. This is a realm of mind and magic. What's most important is the will of the person. Ron Weasley strongly desired to fight, so suddenly he was fine from the kick to the knee earlier.

With this realization, Carl knew that Ron Weasley wasn't permanently down from just a kick to the balls. He could get right back up again, if he focused enough.

Narrowing his eyes in concentration, Carl only allowed one thought to remain in his mind: Kill. He built up his will; he focused all his energy on his next strike. He crouched down in a runners starting position. Lifting his right arm back, as if preparing to punch, instead Carl made a knife hand.

Focusing more on how his strike was going to be, Carl's hand actually turned into a knife hand, glinting metallic grey and elongating into a bayonet knife shape.

By this time Ron Weasley had stopped his moaning and climbed to his feet. He seemed even more gone in the mind. "Can't stop me, it's mine. My adventure!"

Once Ron Weasley was standing, Carl launched himself towards the madly grinning Ron Weasley, flying through the air as if he was a bullet that was just fired.

He arrived before Ron Weasley could do anything, stabbing his knife hand into Ron Weasley's chest, completely destroying his heart. They were face to face. Ron Weasley had a look of utter shock on his face, unable to move. Carl's arm was driven completely through Ron Weasley's chest; his hand emerging from the back.

As the light was fading from Ron Weasley's eyes, in a confused voice, he muttered, "But I'm the hero. Why did it end like this…?"

Carl pulled his arm out of Ron Weasley's chest; the body collapsed to the dark, cracked ground that was the ruins of Ron Weasley's own mind.

Carl stepped back then bonelessly sprawled to his back. Taking deep breaths to recover, Carl was completely out of energy to move.

While lying on the ground, Carl thought back to the fight, thinking about how close he was to dying here. His emotions were too jumbled to separate. He was exultant that he was still alive. He was scared of almost dying and losing all that he had. He was sick at the pit of his stomach.

This was the first time he'd killed someone. He knew it was a matter of self defense, and he knew that the Ron Weasley he'd killed had gone bad and deserved it, but it was still a human life. It was difficult to come to terms with it in the short term. He would have to work on this, so he didn't lose himself.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Carl sat up, taking notice of his surroundings again. The first thing he noticed was that everything around him, from Ron Weasley's body to the Ford Anglia, to the buildings looked transparent.

A wind was blowing, where there wasn't one before. Taking notice of this, it was blowing directly at his face, back to where the world was the mountain forest lake. The wind was increasing in strength, and it started getting a rotation while still flowing in the same direction.

Finally Carl noticed there was an influx of energy into his body and mind that kept getting stronger. All the debris on the street was blowing toward the mountain forest lake. Even the car, Ron Weasley's body, and the buildings seemed to be moving along with the wind.

Carl came to the realization that after defeating Ron Weasley, their cores were merging. That's where the feeling of incoming energy and power was coming from. Carl decided to move with the wind, into his core; the half of the world that was the mountain forest lake.

Arriving at the lake shore, Carl sat down cross legged to be able to concentrate more. The amount of energy entering his body was starting to become uncomfortable. He felt very "full". He tried speeding up and rotating the energy through his body, trying to burn some of it off. The cyclone of wind from Ron Weasley's ruined half of the world sped up, rushing into his half.

The world blinked.

* * *

Carl found himself standing in the Burrow living room all alone staring at the family clock. Arthur's hand was pointed at work, while the rest of the family's hands were pointed at shopping. Carl tried to look around, but found he couldn't move, only observe.

Carl started to faintly feel anger. 'Where is this anger coming from? What's happening?' Carl questioned himself, with no answer forthcoming. 'It's strange though, the anger is muted, like I'm feeling only an echo of the emotion.'

Carl started to faintly hear a small voice in his head, muttering to itself. It sounded like Ron Weasley's voice. "They always leave me behind and forget about me. Stupid family."

Carl realized he was simply an observer in the memories of Ron Weasley. He realized that with the merging of the cores it also seemed to be merging their souls and memories. 'Am I going to have to live through his life? This sucks.' Carl grumbled to himself.

Ron Weasley then began stomping through the Burrow to the kitchen. Seeing there was food set aside for him on the table he sat down and ate angrily, muttering to himself the whole time as if he was greatly wronged.

Glimpsing a calendar on the wall, Carl realized that Ron is 8 years old now. It's August of the year that Percy started his 2nd year, Charlie started 5th, and Bill will be in 7th year.

'Are they off shopping for Hogwarts? Why did they leave Ron Weasley behind?' Carl wondered. Once Carl thought this, he had a shadowy memory quickly play out in his head of earlier in the morning where Ron Weasley refused to get up early. He wanted to make them all wait on him, it made him feel important when he went slow and forced them to accede to his demands for once. 'What a brat.' Carl concluded.

Molly Weasley finally gave him the ultimatum that if he wasn't ready in 5 minutes they'd leave without him. He refused to believe they would do that, choosing to drag his feet so they'd be forced to accommodate him, while ignoring his brother's taunts.

And after 5 minutes they really left him behind. Ron didn't seem to appreciate that his mother left him some food. Or that she didn't spank him. He just sulked that he wasn't the center of attention.

After some time of just stomping around, the rest of the family finally returned from shopping. As they came in from the floo, Carl sensed Ron Weasley's jealousy when he saw what they had purchased. Even when Molly handed him a book about quidditch, he didn't stop feeling jealous about what everyone else got, instead of what he got.

In order to make himself feel better he relentlessly mocked Ginny for her "stupid Harry Potter books" until the point she cried, and ran to her room. Ron Weasley didn't notice, but Carl noticed when the Fred and George, upon seeing this, started conspiring with each other.

Ron was punished by Molly, but he didn't feel like he deserved it. He was sent out to work in the garden, grumbling the whole time.

Later that night he was woken up by a large spider that was spinning a web on him, scaring him greatly and giving him a phobia. The twins were surprised at how afraid he was, and hastily stopped the prank, warning him it was for how he treated Ginny earlier, but Ron Weasley didn't hear what they said, he was too stuck on thinking how unfair they treat him.

The world blinked.

* * *

Ron Weasley was looking out the windows at his siblings playing quidditch.

Carl, sitting in the back of Ron Weasley's head observing realized that he was only getting the highlights from Ron Weasley's life. 'What is the significance of these memories in particular?' Carl wondered, continuing to observe.

Ron was being punished for not doing his chores. After being forced to do his chores while his mother hovered, he was then sent to his room, and not allowed to join his siblings for quidditch. Scowling about his situation he looked around the room for something to do, but it was all locked away by his mother.

Getting up, he walked up to Fred and George's room, trying to handle. It was locked. He moved on to Ginny's room, the door opened up. Looking around the room Ron Weasley saw the only thing available for distraction was her Harry Potter books.

Carl then found out something from being in Ron Weasley's head. Ron Weasley was as big of a fan of the Harry Potter books as Ginny was, he just refused to show it because that was a girly thing that Ginny did; always sighing about how dreamy Harry Potter was.

But Ron Weasley loved reading the adventures. Harry Potter always had a group of friends with him on his adventures, and they mattered. Even someone as great as Harry Potter paid attention to them. Whenever Ron Weasley read the Harry Potter books, he always imagined he was one of Harry Potter's friends. He imagined the glory they would have, together. Even Ginny would be jealous of him then.

The world blinked.

* * *

It was August of 1991. Ron was sitting on the stairs, listening in on the conversation going on in the living room. Percy was upstairs in his room, doing whatever Percy does. Polish his prefect badge, most likely. The twins and Ginny were playing outside, while Ron Weasley had come in to get a drink of water and noticed that Professor Dumbledore was in the living room talking to his mum, so he decided to eavesdrop.

Professor Dumbledore was explaining to Molly Weasley about how Harry Potter was going to rejoin the wizarding world. He explained that Harry didn't have any friends at Hogwarts, and asked if she would wait at the train station before going to platform 9 ¾ to introduce themselves and befriend him while keeping an eye on him.

Molly of course agreed. It was an honor Professor Dumbledore trusted her with this special mission.

Listening in, Ron Weasley realized this was his chance to become Harry Potter's friend, and really be important. Later that day, when his mum called him in, and told him how Harry Potter would need a friend, he was happy to take on that role, assuring his mum he'd steer Harry right.

Later on, when Ron Weasley and Harry Potter were making friends Carl could hear and sense what Ron Weasley was feeling and thinking. Ron Weasley felt better about himself when he saw what Harry was wearing. At least his clothes fit, even if they were second hand.

Ron Weasley was thrilled when with just a sad look he was able to get Harry to buy him a lot of candy. It was good to be his friend. He was already getting benefits!

When a bushy haired know-it-all entered the compartment he was seriously annoyed. She was taking Harry's attention away from him. Ron Weasley was sure to let Harry know how annoyed he was by her. Harry didn't disagree, so he must think the same as him, Ron Weasley concluded.

When Draco Malfoy offered friendship to Harry, Ron Weasley was in a panic. He couldn't let Harry get close to dark wizard scum like them. Not to mention they're rich. What if Harry likes them better because they have more stuff than him? Ron Weasley caused a distraction, snorting at Malfoy. It worked; Malfoy mocked him and Harry defended him. Ron Weasley was proud of himself.

Ron Weasley nodded to himself when Harry was selected for Gryffindor. As if the Boy-Who-Lived could go to any other house. Ron Weasley sat down next to Harry, and started to make sure that everyone knew that Harry was HIS friend. If he had to discourage the insincere suckups for a few days from leaching on his friend, that's what he'd have to do.

Ron Weasley felt a little guilty. But only a little bit. Sure, he'd meant to let that bushy haired know-it-all know that she wasn't wanted, but he didn't want her to die. Who knew there'd be a Troll in the castle? But hey, she owes him, he did save her with his levitate spell. Ron Weasley completely ignored the fact that he used the pronunciation that Hermione had told him earlier that day.

Over the next week Ron Weasley wasn't able to get rid of Hermione. She stuck to them like glue. Harry seemed to be accepting of her, so he could only admit defeat in this matter. It wasn't all negative though, he could usually copy some of her homework if he nagged her enough. It was only fair; she owed him for saving her from the troll.

Ron Weasley felt intense jealousy when he saw the invisibility cloak. The only thing that stopped him from blowing up was that he knew he could convince Harry to lend it to him whenever.

When Harry showed the mirror to Ron Weasley, he was entranced by what he saw. It showed that he was as important as he always knew he was. He was going to be the quidditch captain and head boy. That'd show everyone. Ron Weasley knew he just had to wait for the future to come true.

Ron Weasley was sitting in the infirmary, having been bitten by a baby dragon. He was pretty annoyed by being bitten. But on the other hand he was happy. His brother Charlie only got to work with dragons after he'd graduated from Hogwarts. He was already working with dragons in his first year, which means he beat Charlie in his own specialty. Thinking these happy thoughts he went to sleep to dream of all the accolades he would win.

When Ron Weasley, Harry, and Hermione went to stop Snape from getting the stone he didn't know what would happen. The Devil's Snare scared him, but he solved it. Ron Weasley knew that he could do better than Harry at catching the key, after all he would be the Captain one day, but he figured he'd give Harry the chance to shine. It had nothing to do with the fear that was slowly creeping up his back, or how short his breathing was. When they entered the room with the chess set, he knew what he had to do. He was the best there was at chess, so he could maneuver the game to make sure he'd "sacrifice" himself so they could go on. That was very heroic of him. Ignore the fact that then he wouldn't have to face anymore of these damn traps. So Ron Weasley was "knocked out" and waited "unconscious" until Hermione came back and mentioned leaving to find Professor Dumbledore.

At the leaving feast when Ron Weasley heard about his 50 points for his chess game his chest swelled with pride. He'd won the house cup for them! This proved how great he was.

The world blinked.

* * *

Ron Weasley was thrilled. He, Fred, and George were saving Harry from his vile relatives. It wasn't that he thought all muggles were bad, but honestly, they're muggles. This is what adventure should be. Even the punishment they got for sneaking out wasn't that bad. It was just their normal chores anyway.

That's why when he got severely reprimanded, threatened, and detention for making sure that they got to school despite the problem with the barrier, Ron Weasley was very disgruntled. Didn't everyone already know these kinds of things are unavoidable around Harry? Adventures happen all the time.

Ron Weasley couldn't believe they'd let Hermione talk them into missing the feast to go hang with a bunch of ghosts. There wasn't any food. That's another one Hermione owed him. When they saw the cat hanging from the wall, Ron Weasley knew it was the start of the mystery this year that they'd have to solve. No problem, Ron Weasley was on the case.

He was in a dilemma. Ron Weasley knew that parseltongue was a sign of a dark wizard, but this was the Boy-Who-Lived and Ron Weasley's friend. It seemed like the whole school was against Harry. This wasn't why Ron Weasley became his friend; he was supposed to be popular. He wavered back and forth, but Ron Weasley knew when they solved everything in the end he'd get accolades, so he stuck it out. He made sure Harry knew what happened to those wizards who used parseltongue though, just to make sure Harry doesn't go dark.

Whoever was petrifying people seemed to be targeting people who Harry had conflicts with, so Ron Weasley knew he was safe. Now if they'd just get Malfoy next, that would be great.

After the polyjuice was finished and Ron Weasley and Harry had infiltrated the Slytherin common room, he was proud of himself. He bet that Fred and George were never able to do that! He was proud of himself for brewing that polyjuice. He wondered if Fred and George were able to do that. Probably not.

Whoa, Hermione got petrified. He was thrilled he wouldn't have to listen to her nagging, even if he had to do the homework himself. He never even considered how close to death Hermione had gotten. For Ron Weasley, this was an adventure. There wasn't any real danger.

After Hagrid was arrested, Harry forced Ron Weasley to follow the spiders, despite him warning Harry it was a bad idea. And they almost died. For the first time, Ron Weasley was considering whether being on an adventure was a good thing, if they could actually get hurt and die.

Ron Weasley was mad. They'd taken his sister. Sure he thought she was annoying at times, but he still liked her. She was his sister. They weren't supposed to go after him or his family. That's not how this worked. For the first time Ron Weasley started to resent Harry Potter a little bit. If it wasn't for his adventure he'd never have met acromantulas. His family wouldn't be in danger.

When they forced Gilderoy Lockhart to join them in finding the culprit and saving his sister, Ron Weasley thought it was funny to force the coward forward with them. He stopped thinking it was funny when he almost got buried in rocks and ended up on the wrong side of the cave in.

Later when Harry got all the credit for saving Ginny and defeating the monster, Ron Weasley started burning with indignation. Harry hadn't done it alone. He, Ron Weasley, had done a lot too! He started to resent Harry Potter overshadowing his life while at the same time bringing in such danger.

The world blinked.

* * *

Ron Weasley was pissed. Harry had taken Hermione's side with that big monster that was trying to eat Scabbers. Sure, Scabbers sucked as a pet, but it was pretty much the only thing he had, and both Harry and Hermione don't care if that big monsters eats his pet. He thinks it's obvious they don't care about him losing something valuable to him. He wants them to feel the same way as him, to get back at them a little. He doesn't know what he'll do, but he'll figure something out.

The incident on the train scared Ron Weasley bad. Sure, Harry was a magnet for trouble, but usually he wasn't in any danger. But this was a dementor. And it went straight for Harry, like it could sense him. Deep down, fear started to take root in Ron Weasley's mind. Fear that if he stuck by Harry, he'd end up dead. But it was a very quiet voice; it couldn't be heard over his desire for importance and fame.

Divination class cracked Ron Weasley up. The look on Harry's face about the death predictions amused him greatly. That Trelawney was batty. But deep down that quiet voice talking fear in his mind found new proof that being around Harry Potter was dangerous.

Halloween was great until Ron Weasley found out that Sirius Black had actually gotten to the entrance to the common room. He thought about how he sleeps in the same room as Harry Potter. What if Black went crazy and killed everyone there, instead of just Harry?

The Firebolt was amazing. Ron Weasley couldn't wait to ride it. He could just barely ignore his jealousy because he knew he'd get to ride it soon. It was almost like owning it himself. When that bushy haired know-it-all got the Firebolt taken away from him, Ron Weasley knew how he'd get back at her and Harry for her monster cat always trying to eat his rat. He'd noticed how much Harry liked Hermione, even if Harry didn't realize it yet. So making them split up over the Firebolt would be perfect. He made sure to get Harry mad, and it worked like a charm. Both Harry and Hermione were miserable. It was great, for the time it lasted.

When Ron Weasley was dragged down the passageway, he was petrified with fear. It wasn't supposed to be him being targeted; it was supposed to be Harry. And he'd got a broken leg! The revelation that Scabbers was Pettigrew almost made him puke. He'd slept with that rat on his bed. Everything was such a confused mix up that he wasn't sure exactly what was happening, the pain made it hard to concentrate.

The next day as he sat in the infirmary and saw how close Harry and Hermione were being, he started to resent them. They constantly overshadowed him. They didn't listen to him. They put him in danger. He started wondering how to get back at them. If he could get between them so they could never be together. If he could get what Harry wanted, namely Hermione, then that would prove that he was better than Harry.

The world blinked.

* * *

Ron Weasley was having a lot of fun showing Harry and Hermione around the Quidditch World Cup. It was because of him they were able to come, after all. It showed how important he was. He was basking in this glory, up until Harry started showing off his wealth, buying omnioculars. Did Harry think he didn't know what Harry was doing? Did Harry think he was being sly by stealing his limelight? Worse yet, was that the trouble magnet Harry happened again after the game. Harry even had his wand used to conjure the dark mark.

At the Halloween feast Ron Weasley was daydreaming about what he'd do if he won the Triwizard Tournament. He could get any girl he wanted. Especially that hot blonde French one. He wouldn't just settle for convincing Harry that he was sweet on Hermione in order to convince Harry to give him a chance with her. He would parade all of the women he'd get in front of Harry and laugh at the scowl of jealousy that would be on his face. When Ron Weasley thought up to there, Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire. Ron Weasley seethed in anger. He was sure Harry did it on purpose. And he let him know that night what he thought of him. Let Harry apologize, and maybe he'd take him back.

The time leading up to the first task made Ron Weasley realized he'd been a little too hasty in blowing up at Harry. Harry and Hermione were getting closer, ruining his plan to steal her from Harry. And Harry showed that he could be stubborn, not coming to apologize. He'd have to adjust, and pretend to be contrite to get back in with him so he could finally win against Harry.

At the Yule Ball Ron Weasley was stewing in his anger. It was Harry and Hermione's fault he didn't have a decent date, he fumed. If Hermione had just accepted, at least then he could have seen the jealousy on Harry's face. He decided that if he wasn't having a good time, then neither would either of them.

When Ron Weasley woke up cold, wet, and shivering next to Harry and a small blond girl that didn't speak English, he was pissed at being cold, but laughing inside. It proved his plan to break up Harry and Hermione was working, if he was what Harry would miss most.

After the third task and he found out Cedric died and Voldemort was alive again, Ron Weasley nearly pissed himself. This is getting more dangerous. Ron Weasley was worried that he might die, but he was still more obsessed with proving he was better than Harry.

The world blinked.

* * *

Ron Weasley was proud of being part of the secret group that followed Professor Dumbledore. Even if the House sucked and his mother made them clean by hand, he was part of an important group. He just laughed inside when Harry was sulking because nobody told him anything. He thought it showed Harry he's not as important as he thinks he is.

When the results of Harry's court case came and he was acquitted, Ron Weasley just shook his head in bafflement at some of them thinking that they could actually get Harry in trouble. He was the Boy-Who-Lived. Idiots.

The DADA teacher this year was particularly loathsome. When Ron Weasley saw how Harry Potter was doing his usual magnet trouble thing, he decided he would keep his head down. "Let Harry freaking Potter attract the trouble instead of the people around him" Ron Weasley thought. He'll just sit on the side and collect the benefits. After all, he made prefect this year, and Potter didn't. The best thing is it gave him more time to work on making sure Harry and Hermione didn't get together.

When Ron Weasley found out that his dad's life was in danger, he somehow blamed Harry for it, thinking it to be part of his trouble magnet thing. Just having Harry Potter in their life made it dangerous, but then he needed to be near Harry Potter to get the accolades he craved. He was torn but determined to see it through to the end.

Ron Weasley just scowled inside in, brimming with jealousy when he heard of the special occlumency lessons Harry Potter was getting. Even though it was with the dungeon bat, he was still getting preferential treatment. "But does Harry pass it along to his friends? Of course not," thought Ron Weasley.

While sitting in St. Mungo's recovering from the disaster that was the expedition to save Sirius Black, Ron Weasley couldn't quite remember why he'd joined Harry Potter in going to the ministry. The brain with tentacles had scrambled his brains. But things had become clear to him. He would never get the recognition he deserved until everyone knew he was better than Potter. And the way to do that is to make sure Hermione was his, not Harry's. It was time to stop messing about. All his efforts so far didn't bear much fruit. But if he started using potions, then he'd be sure win.

The world blinked.

* * *

Ron Weasley couldn't believe his brother was marrying the hot blonde French girl. He was there first, but thanks to Harry Potter's interference, he'd lost his chance. But his plan would not be derailed by little things like that.

He started feeding jealousy potions to Hermione, making her think she was upset and jealous whenever some girl paid attention to him. After sometime he started her on mild doses of love potions, letting her affection for him build. He would smirk in triumph whenever he'd see the angry but lost and longing look on her face when he would make out with Lavender Brown right in front of her.

Even at the funeral of Professor Dumbledore, when Harry Potter looked lost and alone, Ron Weasley felt triumphant because Hermione was in his arms, not Harry Potter's.

The world blinked.

* * *

Everyone was cold, hungry, and miserable; Ron Weasley made sure of it. He knew that everything that went wrong in his life was Harry Potter's fault. So he made sure that Potter was not enjoying life. It's only what they deserve.

Ron Weasley found he'd made a mistake. He didn't think their hunt would go on for so long, and he'd run out of the love potion that was making Hermione his. He'd have to get some. His plan was to stage an argument, storming out, and get what he needed. Then he'd come back and valiantly agree to finish helping them with their quest before Hermione was weaned off the potion. But he was nearly caught by the snatcher patrols. He got away, but he was not able to get the potions he needed. He had to lay low. It wasn't until months later, when he was playing with the deluminator, that he found his way back to Harry and Hermione.

Ron Weasley could tell that the potions had worn off, and Hermione was having second thoughts about them. Without the potions he could only try his best to appease her, and keep her interested until he could get more.

The final battle came, and they won, but Fred had died. It was all Potters fault. Then Hermione had the gall to tell him it was over between them. No. He'd take what was his. He attacked and subdued Hermione-

Carl had no desire to witness what was next. He strained as hard as he could; pushing and pulling with his will-

The world blinked.

* * *

A year later Ron Weasley got word that Harry and Hermione had returned to England. He made a plan, and kidnapped Hermione. He had her tied up, lying on the bed. Just as he was about to do something the door was smashed apart, and in strode Harry Potter. Before Ron Weasley could do or say anything he was blasted by Harry's spell, his insides bursting out and painting the walls.

The world blinked.

* * *

Ron Weasley woke up lying on cracked and potholed asphalt. Looking around, everything appeared dark, with rubbish littered everywhere on the streets. Crumbled buildings and rusted, abandoned cars where haphazardly placed along the streets.

Getting up and looking around, there was no where that was clean or whole. Suddenly a light flashed behind him. Whirling around he saw the world had been split in half. His dark half remained the same. The other half was light. It looked like a clean town, a little run down, with a quidditch pitch in the middle of town. Lying on the pitch grass was an 11 year old Ron Weasley.

Walking towards the younger Ron Weasley, the 18 year old Ron Weasley tried to make sense of what was happening. He felt incredibly confused. He suddenly thought of how his half of the world was dark and grimy; broken. While this young Ron Weasley had light, and everything looked good, if a bit worn. And when he thought that this young boy had what he didn't, he couldn't stand it. He felt so angry.

Ron Weasley started snarling, "It's mine. Give it back to me." He reached the unconscious young Ron Weasley and started strangling him. This woke up the younger Weasley, who had fear and pain on his face.

But that wouldn't stop the older Ron Weasley. He just increased the strength of his grip, choking the boy, snarling all the while.

Finally the younger, innocent boy died. And the worlds started to merge. Ron Weasley tried to remain in the light half, but it soon became just as dark as his half was. Everything was breaking, cracking, and becoming stained. The light faded until there was none.

Ron Weasley's world then blinked, and he started experiencing the entire life of the 11 year old boy up until that point. Carl was along for the ride. But this time he saw the entire life of little Ron Weasley, not just the negative aspects. He saw that Ron Weasley was just like any other boy, loving his family, playing, sometimes making mistakes, but he was just a normal boy.

At this point, seeing how normal and full of life the young Ron Weasley was, Carl realized that something really bad must have happened to the brain and memories of the older Ron Weasley when the brain with tentacles latched onto him in the ministry. It broke his mind and sucked all the good out of him, even affecting his past memories. All he could remember was the negative, not the good. All he felt was anger and jealousy after that time, even in his memories he remembered nothing else. All the good thoughts and motives that drowned out the bad were sucked away.

Thinking about this, Carl almost cried for how this friend of Harry and Hermione lost his very identity to the brains with tentacles. The tragedy greatly affected everyone, but especially those three friends were torn asunder.

As the memories played on Carl was able to get a different perspective on Ron's early life, at least until he was 11. He wasn't a malicious little shit. He was sometimes thoughtless, and took a joke too far; sometimes he was thoughtful and kind. And he loved the hell out of quidditch.

In his memories of Luna and Ginny, Carl found that Ron enjoyed a lot of what they talked about, but pretended he didn't for the sake of not being girly. His teasing that day about Luna's imaginary animals and Ginny's crush on Harry Potter went a little too far. It resulted in the girls never discussing those topics around him again, much to his dismay. But Ron didn't know how to fix what he'd broken so that he could enjoy those discussions again.

In one of the memories he'd been shopping in the local village with his mum. They were browsing in a muggle bookstore, enjoying the novelty together, when they saw a book about dinosaurs. This wasn't something that was in the wizarding world, so they were interested, and over the next couple of days learned about the T-Rex, the Brontosaurus, and other dinosaurs; and how they had gone extinct. A few weeks later Ron noticed that throughout the day his mum was not feeling so good. She kept cooking and cleaning like she usually did. Feeling bad about how much she does for them, Ron went up to his mum and dropped the following line on her: "Mum, you know why the dinosaurs went extinct? Because their arms were too short to hug." Then he hugged his mum for all he was worth.

'This is who Ron Weasley really was' Carl thought to himself. 'A young boy that didn't get a chance in this life; and a young man that lost all that made him himself in the last.'

The world blinked.

* * *

Carl/Ron opened his eyes. He was lying in his bed in Ravenclaw tower. Checking the time, he saw it was 3 a.m. Not even a full night had passed.

He got up and walked to the window and stood gazing outside until dawn.


	11. Chapter 11

The hours before dawn, as Carl/Ron (C-Ron) stared unseeing out the window of his room in Ravenclaw tower, gave C-Ron time to come to terms with his experience. It was only a single night, but it felt like years had passed. This was likely because it was years of memories he'd witnessed and emotions he'd felt while viewing the memories, even if only second hand.

C-Ron had come to 3 conclusions based on what he'd experienced.

 **The first conclusion** is that C-Ron was in an alternate version of Robst's fanfic.

In the fanfic that C-Ron had read, there was no Rapist Ron (R-Ron) traveling back to inhabit the body of his younger self. There was no Carl traveling to a different dimension to also occupy the body of Younger Ron (Y-Ron).

This point is blindingly obvious now that he takes a moment to think about it, but he'd always been so caught up in being in the universe the fanfic was based on that he didn't consider the ramifications of him being here.

Going a step further based on this conclusion, is that C-Ron doesn't truly understand the world he finds himself in. He's only read a four month long snippet of this universe: from September 1st to December 25th. C-Ron already knew his "future knowledge" about the plotline in this universe was severely limited; adding in the unknown means that he would have to be wary of assumptions based on fictions he's read.

The short time span he knew was one of the major reasons he'd so readily spilled what he knew about what was going on with Harry and Hermione. If he sat on the intel, it would soon be obsolete. The other major consideration was making sure Harry and Hermione hadn't confused C-Ron with R-Ron and started torturing answers out of him.

 **The second conclusion** is that Y-Ron was from a different universe from R-Ron.

One particular incident in both Y-Ron and R-Ron's past gave C-Ron the clue he needed. In both their pasts they missed going shopping with the rest of the family when they were 8. In R-Ron's memories, when he was looking at the Weasley family clock, the hand was pointing at "Shopping". In Y-Ron's memories there was no "Shopping" destination on the clock. The hands had been pointing at "Away". This miniscule difference showed that R-Ron actually came from a different universe than Y-Ron.

C-Ron had wondered at first why he only saw highlights from R-Ron's life; when C-Ron started to view Y-Ron's memories of his life in full, C-Ron understood. The tentacle brains had done more than just scramble R-Ron's brain. They'd eaten all the good memories out of him. All that was left was memories and feelings of a negative nature.

As a result, every memory that R-Ron had remaining had no context by which to really understand his own life. He would have been very confused at that point. His mind would have then started making associations based on what was there. All those negative emotions and motives were then used as a brush to paint retroactive context into his memories.

Y-Ron's memories gave context to exactly what the tentacle brains had done. In Y-Ron's memories, the reason he hadn't been able to get up in time for shopping was because he'd been up half the night puking. Before finally getting to bed he'd been adamant with his mum that he wanted to join them shopping the next day; they only made the pre-Hogwarts trip to Diagon Alley once a year, it was a family tradition! His mother had been so exasperated with his hardheadedness she'd finally made a deal. If he was able to get ready by a specific time without her help, he could join them. If he couldn't, they'd leave without him so he could rest.

In Y-Ron's memories, he'd just been pouting a bit that he wasn't able to get ready for the trip. When they returned he was happy to have a quidditch book, but he'd been focused on Ginny's Harry Potter book because that book was about fun, adventure, and friendships, and he couldn't wait to sneak it out of Ginny's room to read it. The clandestine nature of sneaking the book instead of openly reading it added to the excitement of reading the story.

When all that was left of R-Ron's memories of family was jealousy and anger due to the tentacle brains, the memory of an 8 year old pouting, because he couldn't get ready in the morning due to being sick, turned into being enraged that he couldn't manipulate his family, and jealousy of what everyone else got.

R-Ron was basically a Gollum version of Ron Weasley. All that remained was a twisted, evil-minded wreck of a human being. As cold hearted as it sounded, C-Ron believed it would have been better for everyone if R-Ron had just died in the battle at the Ministry for Magic that night of their fifth year.

Ever since C-Ron had occupied the body of Ron Weasley, he had been seriously conflicted in taking on the identity of the body that he knew would become a rapist. It was with relief that C-Ron concluded that without the influence of the tentacle brains, in this universe Y-Ron would only have been a somewhat emotionally thick but normal dude. Seeing the memories of Y-Ron, and how R-Ron was twisted by the tentacle brains, strangely enough put his mind at ease for living life in his new identity as Ron. It gave him peace of mind that as long as he stays away from tentacle brains, he won't end up turning out anything like R-Ron.

 **The third conclusion** is there is absolutely no reason to mention anything that happened in his mind to Harry and Hermione.

The only possible reason C-Ron could think of to tell the Potters this information was to inform them of the reason why their friend went evil. There was also a lingering sentiment in C-Ron's mind of "hey, this is the hero of your childhood books, be FRIENDS!" But really, that's just stupid sentimentality. They have their life, and he has his.

What would be the possible ramifications of telling them this information? They might start feeling guilty over something that wasn't their fault. They might become less decisive by second guessing everything they've done and assumed to be truth up to this point. It might make them suspicious of C-Ron; after all, he had R-Ron in his head. What's to say that C-Ron wasn't influenced by R-Ron and might become their enemy?

C-Ron had to go through great effort to make sure they were at least neutral in regards to him. Wizard oaths are not something to take lightly. Why would he go creating drama and conflict for himself where there needs to be none?

There's one possible pro, of dubious benefit, and a host of cons in revealing this information. Best to just keep his trap shut Ron concluded and got ready for his morning exercise routine.

When he finished with his workout and shower, Ron decided to check his stats before going to breakfast.

* * *

Name: Ron Weasley

Age: 11

Race: Human

Bloodline: Wizard/Uzumaki

Cultivation Methods:

Body Cultivation: None

Energy Cultivation: None

Soul Cultivation: None

Stats

Strength: 16

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 17

Intelligence: 25

Wisdom: 18

Charisma: 25

* * *

Looking at the large increase in his Intelligence and Charisma, Ron concluded that he must have gotten a quite a boost to his magical core and soul. Seeing that he had enough time before breakfast was over, Ron decided to take a look at his core. Sitting down, he started to repeat the exercise from his occlumency that allowed him to follow his magic back to his core.

When he finally arrived at his core, Ron was stunned. There was only a single core remaining, about the same size as the larger of the two he'd seen before, but it had changed. Previously, both cores had an inner sphere of pure white, while the rest of the magical core was a cyan color that seemed to radiate from the inner part. It was similar to how lightning itself was white and radiated different colors depending on atmospheric conditions.

The inner part of his core was still pure white like a ball of lightning, but the radiating color was now between an indigo and violet color, instead of cyan.

Ron didn't really have enough time to do more than look for a few moments. Coming out of his meditation, he went to breakfast, still pondering the significance of the changes in his core. He was also surprised when he came to the realization that he had a core prior to coming to this universe. It had been much smaller that R-Ron's, but still there.

Did that mean he was a squib in his universe? If that was the case, how was he able to use magic immediately upon arrival in this universe? Or was it that because he was never able to use magic in his universe, it resulted in his magical core being starved and atrophied?

With no clear answers, all Ron could do was shake his head in confusion. On his way to his first class, Ron firmly set all these questions aside, since he could do nothing with them.

* * *

Later that night as Ron was practicing his spell casting, he was able to confirm at least two assumptions he'd made before. His Wisdom stat was related to his control of his magic, and his Intelligence stat was related to his magic.

He'd gotten a boost of magic when the two cores had merged, but he hadn't gotten an equally large increase in wisdom, or the control of his magic. That could only come with practice. Grueling, tough practice.

Throughout the day, as he'd cast spells in class, his control had been abysmal. Sometimes too little magic came through and his spell fizzled. Sometimes too much magic burst through and results would vary.

In Transfiguration the small six inch blocks of wood they were attempting to turn into wooden animal figurines was accidently enlarged to a three foot block of wood with only a Cheshire cat grin on the front of the block facing him, and a tail on the backside. Professor McGonagall was officially not amused by Alice in Wonderland references. Ron was sure she would have a laugh behind closed doors, but in front of students? Never!

The only thing Ron could do was grit his teeth and work harder on his control. He made more effort to feel and regulate the magic as it passed through him as he cast spells. His efforts did not go unrewarded; over the next month he was able to bring his magic back in line with his will, getting the results he desired when casting. Not some abomination of a Cheshire wooden block.

Ron also made good progress in his occlumency. When he was able to sink back into his core and enter his mindscape, he was pleased to discover that his half and half world was gone. It was only a mountain forest lake now. The view, however, was trashed. Literally, trash was everywhere. When he first arrived, he picked up a coke can, and was immersed in a memory of a young Ron getting his mother to buy him some snacks in the local grocery store.

Looking around at all the litter, Ron concluded that his mind interpreted all the memories he'd gotten from Ron Weasley as foreign material, trash. Dropping the coke can, he wondered where his own memories were. He started walking around the lake and brushed up against a shrubbery, falling into a memory of his prior life. The memory was of his first job interview when he was 16. 'Well, that was awkward. Looking back on my answers combined with body language and no confidence it's no wonder I wasn't hired.' Ron shook his head.

After the memory was finished, he picked up a rock and relived another of his memories. 9th grade English class. The teacher was a fan of the story of Romeo & Juliet. They could have studied any other Shakespeare play, but no, they had to read and act out the play about suicidally stupid teens. His group was assigned the fifth act. Before anyone actually read the play, they all unanimously assigned him the role of Romeo. "You're smart! You get the lead so you have to memorize the most lines!" They told him triumphantly. But their quick decision was like dropping a rock on their own feet. Most of the 5th act Romeo is dead and just lying there. 'Bwahaha, take that! It's not like I'm interested in memorizing stupid Romeo lines.' He had thought vengefully at the time.

Chuckling a bit at reliving that memory, Ron dropped the rock and started to ponder what he would do to organize his mind and memories. He would need a building to store and guard his memories. He enjoyed the discovery that his mindscape was originally this nice looking mountain forest lake, but it just wasn't practical for defense. He would need his design to be well organized for his purposes of easy recall and cross referencing his knowledge database.

Ron began to recall some of the ideas that he's come across in his readings. Some would have a decoy Hogwarts that would be highly visible that serve as a trap. All their memories would be stored in an out of the way facility. Sometimes that facility would be a spaceship in orbit. Sometimes it would be located in a building on the dark side of the moon. Ron knew he wouldn't be able to do something quite so ambitious for a while at least. Best to start with basics; then he could rebuild, improve, and innovate as he became more skilled.

Ron concentrated on his memories of Hogwarts and the layout as he'd learned it this past half year. Next to the lake on an outcropping a transparent Hogwarts began coming into being. It was wavering, not quite manifesting. Finally after several minutes of sweating effort, Ron couldn't sustain the effort. The illusory Hogwarts vanished.

Collapsing to the ground from the strain, Ron started to regulate his erratic breathing to recover. It was too much on his first try. 'So much for the idea of being an instant master just because I've got a bit of imagination.' Ron ruefully thought to himself. 'Guess I've got to start at even more basic than the basics.'

Sitting up and crossing his legs, Ron closed his eyes in concentration. In front of him a table desk and chair made of mahogany began forming. In just a few minutes it became solid. Feeling success the moment the desk and chair became permanent, Ron opened his eyes. Standing up, he began to feel the desk and chair. 'Yup, feels like solid mahogany.' Ron congratulated himself.

Over the next 10 days Ron continued his practice of conjuring up single pieces. Anything from pogo sticks to catapults he practiced visualizing and willing into being. He was finally able to will things into being in just a couple of seconds.

Next he moved onto larger things. Houses, corn mazes, and libraries were some of his practice material. By the end of January he was able to easily create a small library.

By the middle of February he was able to sustain a middle sized library. Ron decided that he had enough skill and room in his library to begin organizing and cataloging his memories.

His library was circular in shape. Right in the center was his help desk. Ron split up the different sections in pie slices. For now he split it the library half. Half would be his memories; the other half would be dedicated to his knowledge database. He would adjust the 50/50 ratio in the future if needed. He planned to expand the library and create more efficient methods of storing his memories and knowledge in the future, so he decided to remain as flexible as possible for future updates.

Ron then began organizing his memories. For some reason unknown to him, in his mindscape he had to personally "physically" pick up his memories. He couldn't just will them to move. So he spent the next 20 days picking up a memory, reliving it, taking it to his library where it changed into a book, and shelving it in the relevant section.

The whole process was difficult, yet oddly freeing as well. He was able to more clinically analyze actions and decisions he'd made in the past and the direct results of his decisions.

There were many memories where he acted childishly that he was just immensely amused by his past self. Then there were the memories that were so horribly embarrassing that he could hardly look at himself in the mirror for the rest of the day. 'Being forced to relive some of these embarrassing memories surely had to be good for tempering my will, right? There must be some benefit to it.' Ron desperately comforted himself in vain, not really believing it himself.

However, reliving his memories in this way let him start to determine cause and effect in his life. Many of the embarrassing moments were directly caused by his poor decision making or poor attitude that couldn't handle the results of his own actions.

"No bounce no play" came to mind. The phrase was from a Stephen King story, Dreamcatcher. In the story there was a group of 4 teenagers that hung out in what seemed to be an abandoned school. Near the baseball field there was a wall with these words on it. It was meant to warn the kids not to bounce their balls off the wall or play there.

This group of friends however took it and turned it into a kind of life philosophy. Ron understood this phrase to mean a number of different things, depending on the circumstances of uttering the phrase; all stemming from an understanding of actions and results. "If you don't bounce the ball, how can you play?" "Things will remain the same unless you take action." "If you don't try, you'll never know."

Additionally there is the intrinsic understanding that being the ball can sometimes get a bit rough. "If you can't handle the bounce, don't play."

To Ron this attitude of handling the results of his actions and decisions, as well as expecting the unexpected tough times, was an important attitude to live by. He'd already been thrown many curve balls in his new life. If he didn't have an attitude of adapt and overcome, he'd have already lost his chance to live.

Despite whinging about his embarrassing moments in life, there actually was a tempering of his will and attitude that benefited him from sorting his memories.

* * *

Ron was so focused on his goals that his birthday arrived without him noticing. If it wasn't for his brothers Fred and George and letters from his family, he would have totally forgotten it.

Fred and George's birthday present was a small package that when opened poofed in his face. The rest of the day he had neon pink hair. When Ron looked in the mirror and saw even his eyebrows were neon pink, he couldn't stop laughing. It looked so ridiculous, he couldn't even get upset. This kind of prank where the only negative is a bit of his dignity lost wasn't so bad.

Ron decided to get into it and styled his hair in Mohawk spikes for the day, which got a laugh from Fred and George for him playing along with the prank. Everyone but them assumed that hairstyle was part of the prank. Ron predicted that future iterations of the prank would include the Mohawk.

Arthur and Molly sent him some clothes, along with a letter telling him to stay good, stay out of trouble, etc. Things parents who are so far away from their kids worry about. Ron wondered at first how they knew how much he grew while he was away, until he tried on one of the shirts that then adjusted to his frame perfectly. 'Say what you will about the daftness of wizards, their auto adjust clothing is awesome!' Ron exclaimed in his mind.

Bill sent him a simple notebook. Previously Ron had expressed an interest to Bill about what he'd need to know to get into the Curse Breaking profession. The notebook contained information about what classes he'd have to take at Hogwarts, important books of the basics, and study notes that Bill had taken while studying. Ron was really happy with this notebook; the information could save him a lot of time from fumbling around on his own.

Charlie also sent him a notebook filled with his insights on what information from books was bullocks in practical situations, and what was gold. Ron had sent him a UMALT as a birthday/Christmas gift. Charlie had been very appreciative in letters at how useful it was overall, even though some of it was absolutely useless for him. The divination and kitchen stations in particular. Divination was useless for dragon handlers, and anywhere he could set up a kitchen would already have one.

'Guess I couldn't think of everything. Now that I think of it, with the mini-RoR, why even have different stations? I could just have an expanded storage space and it would act like an inventory for the min-RoR that I could form into a potions lab, or library with all my books. /Sigh. I was so excited for my trunk too. It's already obsolete.'

Ron moped to himself for a bit before coming to the realization that he wouldn't want to show the mini-RoR to just anybody. So there was still a use for the different stations. Having successfully cheered himself up, he continued browsing Charlie's dragon handler notes.

Ginny and Luna had sent him a joint gift of candies and chocolates. They were very delicious, and perfect for in between meal sugar pick-me-ups.

All in all, it was a fun day that he spent playing and relaxing. It was luckily a Sunday, so there were no classes.

* * *

The month of March went by quickly. Ron had finished organizing his memories, and found his instant recall of anything he'd read was amazing. It felt so good to have ready access to everything he's learned.

Even the mathematics, physics, and other sciences that he'd taken in his past life were remembered with crystal clarity. Unfortunately he'd never gone to college, so he didn't have advanced knowledge in any area, but he would work on that after getting his GCSEs.

It was March 28th and Ron had, through great effort, earned enough points before April 1st to buy the shadow clone technique; completing the quest he set. Such a long term goal earned him quite a few points, giving him a good start on his way to purchasing his cultivation techniques. He was making good progress without cultivation techniques, but with them he'd improve even more. [Stats]

* * *

Name: Ron Weasley

Age: 12

Race: Human

Bloodline: Wizard/Uzumaki

Cultivation Methods:

Body Cultivation: None

Energy Cultivation: None

Soul Cultivation: None

Stats

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 20

Constitution: 21

Intelligence: 27

Wisdom: 24

Charisma: 27

* * *

If the novels he'd read in his life had taught him anything, it was the importance of these cultivation techniques. Cultivating the body, mind, and soul into something that can handle great power is a step by step process that starts with a foundation.

As far as he could tell, in the wizarding world, these cultivation systems didn't exist. They either had magic or they didn't, and they didn't have any way to increase magical ability except through rituals. However, the wizarding rituals had dubious results. Riddle with his inhuman features and his loss of his humanity, if he ever had it, was an example of the costs far outweighing the benefits of performing those rituals.

The cultivation techniques were a systematic method of building a metaphorical building with the body, mind, and soul. It's very important to build a strong foundation that one could then build a mighty building on.

Take the body for example. If one were to build a shaky foundation they might simply make the muscles strong. Then when the muscles are flexed, the tendons that attach the muscles to the bones will tear apart from the strain. Then what if they build up the muscles and the tendons? Oops, the bones weren't built up; they will crack apart. Everything in the body must be strengthened in order to be able to handle greater power. This is what is called cultivating a strong body foundation.

The shadow clone technique was important to Ron because it would allow him to accomplish more in a day. He could earn store points faster by reading more books, completing more quests, and practicing more magic in a day with his clones than he could do without.

Especially now that he's gotten to the point in his occlumency training that he could file all the new memories daily in his library, and have them available for instant recall. He no longer needed to struggle so hard to remember everything he'd read. Now he only needed to put in the effort to keep all his memories filed in his mental library on a daily basis.

With the clone technique he'd be able to purchase a cultivation technique for his body, mind/energy, and soul by the end of the year. Without the help of clones it might take him two or three years to earn enough points to get his cultivation techniques. The longer he went without cultivation techniques to build his foundation and increase his power, the greater his desire to start cultivating became. The use of clones was already the quickest method available for him to purchase his cultivation techniques.

After going into his mini-RoR, Ron opened the store and purchased the shadow clone technique. Information appeared in his mind. Closing his eyes, Ron started reading the data that was plopped in his mind. It included all the relevant information needed for the shadow clone technique. How to use the technique with chakra and hand signs, like in Naruto. How to use the technique using magic; he didn't even need to use his wand for this bit, the magic was shaped in the body and cast. How much chakra/magic it took to create one clone. How long the clone could last. Dangers of trying to create more clones than the person's chakra/magic could sustain.

Using the diagnostic technique provided, Ron determined he had enough magic for two clones that would last 6 hours if they didn't perform any magic or were popped. The more magic they performed, the quicker they would pop. If they took any physical damage, they would pop. Once they popped, no matter the distance, he would receive the memories of what they had done and experienced.

Shaping his magic in the method he'd learned, he cast the technique. The magic flowed, but nothing happened. No clones. He meticulously thought about what he'd done and compared it to the knowledge in his head. He identified several mistake areas where the magic didn't flow in the exact shape required.

Painstakingly shaping the magic again, he cast the technique. Nothing, again. He was almost there, but his attention wavered at the last second, distorting the shaped magic.

'Third time's the charm!' Ron pumped himself up, determined to get it right.

He focused, shaping the magic, holding it in place and casting.

*Poof* *Poof*

Smoke filled his room. When it cleared enough, he saw two identical Rons standing across from him.

"Yeah! It worked!" Three Rons exclaimed, promptly giving each other high-fives and pumping their fists up and down like a bunch of idiots.

After the little celebration, Ron asked a question of the clones he'd always wondered. "So, when you poofed into being, did you already know you were clones?"

Both clones frowned, while Clone 1 stated firmly, "I'm not the clone. I'm pretty sure you two are the clones."

Clone 2 replied, "Whatever, it's obvious you two are the clones. I'm the Paragon of Total Masculinity. Get in your place."

Total silence.

Then all three Rons burst out laughing. It was so typical of his clones to prank him like that.

Clone 2, after fighting down the laughter, "When we poofed into being, we immediately sense as well as see the strong thread connecting us to you, the prime. So we immediately know we are a clone. We also see lesser threads attached to other clones."

Clone 1, "That way we're always able to keep track of the prime and the other clones. That must also be why every clone will also get the memories of each clone to pop, because we're all connected."

Ron, "This is great. This is useful. We're so excited!" The clones laughed in agreement.

After playing around for a bit, Ron and his clones divvied up the work. Prime would spend his time exercising, practicing magic, or arranging his mindscape, leaving the study and homework to the clones. Clones didn't regenerate magic; they had a limited amount, so they would have to create a schedule. They all agreed not to have the clones mess about with the mindscape, who knows what would happen when a clone popped after doing that. It was best not to chance having something bad happen to his mind.

The clones only had six hours of run time if they used no magic. So they arranged the schedule during the weekdays so that the first thing at six in the morning, Ron would wake up and make two clones. One would study, the other would meditate, and Ron would exercise. At eight when Ron was showering and having breakfast, the two clones would duel, either magic or fisticuffs until one or both of them popped. The remaining one would practice magic until he popped. This would give Ron some experience in dueling, and give him the knowledge the two clones had.

When breakfast was over Ron would return to his room to make two more clones. One clone would go to class, while the other read books; Ron would work on his occlumency.

When it was lunch time, the clone that went to class would return to their room. The two clones would duel until one popped, then the other would cast spells until he popped. Ron would go to lunch, and then make another two clones. He didn't want to make hungry and distracted clones before eating. They wouldn't be able to focus.

It would then be a repeat of the morning. One clone goes to class, while the other reads, does homework, or meditates; Ron would get another session of exercising in. A duel before dinner would pass all the knowledge of the classes and interactions with his classmates to Ron.

After dinner Ron would work on his casting or occlumency, while one clone studied and another meditated. A final duel at midnight, just before going to sleep, would finish out the day. After the first day, Ron found it wasn't a good idea to have clones going while he slept, because when they popped in the morning he received two sets of memories of staying up all night and not having rest for over 24 hours. That first day was difficult to get through, mentally. The mind needs rest like the body does.

* * *

The rest of the year passed in a haze of studying and training. Their final exams were the first week of June. Ron's now perfect memory ensured he got perfect marks on his finals. Overall his class standing was third. Hermione was first, while Harry was a close second. Their head start from having gone through school before ensured that they were getting top marks from the very beginning, while Ron had to learn what the professors wanted from their homework and classes before getting to the point where he was getting perfect marks by April.

He wasn't disappointed in the least though. A grade wasn't the important thing to him, learning magic was. He'd already perfected silent casting for all the first year material. And he was halfway into learning the second year material. By the end of summer he should have silent casting down as well for all the second year material. By the last week of June, he should have enough magic to bring out three clones at a time. Just in time to purchase his mind/energy cultivation technique.

As Ron was riding the carriages to the train station in Hogsmeade to leave for the summer, he was thinking back on all that he'd experienced this year. He'd gained a new family and made some friends. He'd learned a lot, and was excited to learn more.

He arrived at the train station, and saw the Hogwarts Express for the first time. It was meant to be a magical symbol to represent the departure of the mundane world for the magical world. It was meant to be a symbol of a child's awe of entering into a magical new world. It was supposed to be awesome.

'Tch, it's only a model.' Ron thought irreverently, snickering to himself at how built up it was in his mind verses seeing the train in person. 'I mean, it's a train. Yeah, it's the means to travel to a magic school, but it's still just a freaking coal train.' He thought as he boarded.


	12. Chapter 12

"Up up, wake up! Weasley family meeting in 10 minutes!" Molly Weasley woke up Ron, Fred, George, Bill and Ginny. Groaning, Ron checked the time: 6 a.m. He usually gets up at this time anyway, but since this was the first day of summer break he'd decided to sleep in for once. That plus somehow getting woken up by alarm clock was so much easier than being woken up by his new mum.

Shrugging, Ron made his clones so they could get to work in his mini-RoR while he went to check out this meeting. There might even be an early breakfast.

* * *

Arthur and Molly had decided that summer break would be spent as a family. They couldn't stand not seeing their children for years while they worked. They needed to spend some time as a family, or what was the point of working so hard? Yesterday Fred, George, and Ron had met up with Ginny at the international floo in the Ministry for Magic, and waited while Ginny had a tearful parting with Luna for the summer.

They'd arrived in Cairo where Bill was waiting for them to arrive. Acting as a tour guide, Bill pointed out the major sights of the Cairo magical shopping bazaar as they made their way to the inn the Weasleys were running.

Ron noticed that instead of apothecary shops, potion ingredients were laid out like the spice stalls in pictures he'd seen online in his previous life. "Hey Bill. Why is it that back in Diagon all the potions ingredients were sitting in jars and bins and stuff, but here they're all just sitting in the open? Doesn't that ruin the ingredients?"

"It would if there weren't a thing called preservation spells and runes. Even back in England they use them. Even if you stuck the ingredients in jars they'd still degrade without the proper spells to keep the magic fresh."

"Is that why they sell the premade potions kits to students, so we don't go ruining our potions ingredients?" Ron realized. Fred and George looked like they were interested in the conversation, if their pause in plotting to listen in on the answer was any indication.

"Not exactly. Apothecaries would love to just sell the potion ingredients with no warning about needing proper storage. Then halfway through the school year they'd get to sell another batch of ingredients to students, mostly muggleborn, who didn't know they needed the special storage and need to restock. It was like that for quite a while, until it affected some pureblood families that had, shall we say, absentminded heirs."

"Absentminded is a very nice way, Bill" "of saying that they're smarter than flobber worms" "if only just by a bit." Fred and George stated, to the amusement of the siblings.

After the laughter died down, Ginny asked the twins, "Fred, George, why are you two doing that thing with completing each other's sentences. It's kind of annoying."

Ron piped up, "From what I've heard they've been doing it all year, driving their classmates loco."

Fred looked at George and shrugged, with a questioning look in his eyes. George shrugged then nodded assent. Turning to Ginny they both intoned, " **Training**."

Laughing at their befuddled looks, Fred went on to explain. "Sometimes verbal battles are just as important, if not more so, than wielding your wand and hexing someone to beyond the eighth gate. So we came up with a game."

George interjected, "It was a game to challenge each other and sharpen our wits. One of us would start a sentence" "the other would continue it, throwing in an unexpected element like ice cream" "and the other would run with the idea, doing battle like one would finish off an ice cream cone" " **one lick at a time** " they finished in chorus.

Fred alone continued, "So it kept us on our toes and messed with everyone's minds, especially those first years who never heard us speak any other way. We heard some funny theories about it. One fifth year muggleborn thought we'd developed twin telepathy. They were in fact quite jealous, wishing they had a twin they could telepathize with."

"The one that cracked me up the most was that we didn't have our own brains. We shared one large brain that floated in the ether between us. Our empty headed nature led to us wasting our time on pranks when school was more important. Ah, Ravenclaws. The dumbest smart people you'll ever meet." George melodramatically proclaimed.

After everyone laughed for a bit, Bill continued, "Back to what I was explaining; it was one thing for the pure blood snobs if a bunch of muggleborn were getting ripped off, but the practice was eating into their own purse. So they got together and passed some laws that basically forced the apothecaries to provide the proper storage containers when sold to students. The apothecary owners were now upset, because having to provide so many containers for the students now ate into their purse. So they came up with the idea of the kits that hold everything the student needs in one package instead of many. And they mark it up a bit for the service of putting the package together so they don't actually pay for the storage themselves."

The Weasley siblings arrived at the inn they would be staying at for the summer. From the outside it was a two story wooden building. On the inside it had 4 floors and a basement. Their room was in the basement, the whole family had to fit in one room since the owner declared it was the tourist season and if they wanted more rooms they'd have to rent.

Well done applications of expansion charms and setting up blanket barriers with silencing charms gave everyone a little bit of privacy, so it wasn't too bad. It gave Ron the privacy he'd need to get in and out of his trunk so he could make his clones.

After eating a quick dinner in the kitchen while Molly and Arthur served the guests, Ron and his siblings had nothing much to do, so they went to bed. It was pretty late already, so sleep sounded good.

* * *

Ten minutes after the wake-up call everyone was gathered in the common area of their family space and the meeting got underway. There wasn't much to the meeting besides portioning out chores. Every morning until noon they'd have cleaning duties. It was necessary to clean the yard and bar area of the inn, as well as the rooms of vacated guests; prepping food and cleaning dishes.

Molly and Arthur alternated 10 hour shifts of minding the inn, while Bill was on call the other 4 hours from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Ever since Bill had been fired from Gringotts he hadn't been able to do much more than scut work for the officially hired Curse Breakers, but it kept him in practice for his work so he didn't get rusty; and it brought a bit more income to the family.

After the meeting breakfast was served. It wasn't nearly as extensive as the meals Molly usually laid out for her family. She just didn't have the time or resources to do so while managing the inn and cooking simple pub food for the guests.

Ron could tell that she felt guilty about not being able to provide for her family like she used to. Despite all the work and effort they were putting in to make sure they got the best education, she still felt like she wasn't doing enough. Ron made doubly sure he didn't make any Ron-Weasley-emotional-teaspoon-ish comments to criticize the food spread. Thanking her with a hug seemed to put a smile on her face at least.

'It's the least I can do to be a decent son and brother to my new family. It's not even half as awkward as I thought it'd be now that I've got little teaspoon's memories in my head.' Ron chuckled to himself as he went to his trunk to switch out with his clone so he could work out and leave the cleaning to his clone.

Ron's summer days settled into a routine. During the morning he'd have one of his clones pairing up with Ginny to get the cleaning out of the way while Ron prime worked out, and his other clone studied Arabic. Ron decided if he was going to be spending time in Egypt, he might as well learn the language; because of his occlumency it wasn't as hard as it was in his past life to learn. Heck, he'd struggled to learn Spanish in the past; and Arabic was much harder. 'Thank Merlin for occlumency!' Ron paused on that thought. 'Actually, who came up with occlumency and the mind arts? Was it Merlin? None of the texts say anything about it. Hmm, the world may never know…'

After lunch Ron would set his clones to studying and practicing magic while he hung out with Ginny. Sometimes Fred and George would join them, but too often the twins were too immersed in research to spend time with Ron and Ginny. Most of the day Bill was away working with the Curse Breaker teams, so they only saw him in the evenings.

There were a number of reasons Ron wanted to personally spend time with Ginny in the afternoons, as opposed to just sending a clone to do so. The fairly relaxed afternoon allowed him to rest from his morning workout before his evening workout. Spending actual physical time with her also seemed more personal, as opposed to just receiving the memories.

He also seemed to feel some residual guilt from the echoes of little teaspoon's memories about not being there for Ginny in her first year when she got possessed by diary Tom. Even though it technically never happened. And he wasn't originally Ron. And yet those complicated feelings were lodged in his brain the moment he accepted living as Ron and that Ginny was his sister. Hey, who ever said humans made sense?

And finally Ron was of course nervous that his clone would get mouthy with her, she'd hex him, and it'd pop. That would be a disaster, especially if it happened when they were hanging out at the magical bazaar. Then he'd be leaving his cute little sister - 'Thanks Kakashi' - all alone where strangers were plenty. Nope, not happening.

When Ron and Ginny weren't exploring the bazaar, they were usually in Ginny's trunk studying and practicing magic. Ron started introducing meditation, occlumency, and the benefits of exercise to Ginny during this time.

"…and not only does regular exercise increase your abilities as a flyer, it increases how much magic your body can handle and produce, making you a more formidable witch." Ron finished up his selling points to encourage her to exercise with him in the evenings before bed.

"Fine, I'm sold." Ginny seemed a little bored of Ron's sells pitch, but acquiesced in the end. She then perked up a bit, "I'm going to bombard everyone out of the water come school time!" Ginny proclaimed proudly.

"You're darn right! Nobody is going to be able to beat our cute little fireball!" Ron chorused. "Excellent." Ron stated, imitating Burnes.

"Knock that off, I told you its creepy already!" Ginny growled while whacking Ron upside the head.

"Which is exactly why I do it!" laughed Ron.

"Fine, whatever." Ginny pouted for a bit before she couldn't help herself and joined Ron in laughing.

From then on Ron would join Ginny in doing a workout in the evenings while teaching her what he'd learned about using magic to heal and strengthen her body after exercising.

* * *

It was the evening of the last day of June, and Ron was finally able to purchase his cultivation technique of energy for his magic. He'd already tested his affinity, so he opened up the store, purchasing the [Lightning Rod] technique.

He lay back on his bed, assimilating the knowledge that was downloaded directly into his brain. There were nine levels in Ron's cultivation technique; he only had access to the first level for now. Once he'd finished accumulating enough energy and laying a proper foundation he could then break through into the second level. Step by step, and each level would be a huge transformation. The amount of energy available and the density, so to speak, would be greater by an order of magnitude.

Ron decided not to waste any more time. Sitting cross legged, he began his first session of cultivation. There was a mantra that he would need to chant at first to get in the correct mindset. He basically needed to visualize his core as being like a lightning rod, hence the name of the cultivation technique. Then he'd imagine the magical energy in the world to be like floating electrons that his core of a lightning rod would attract.

In the beginning stages the electrons, or magic, would gently float into his core, slowly increasing the density and amount of magic in his core and throughout his body. As his core became more sturdy, and able to handle greater amounts of magic, the magic attracted would become more and more like lightning strikes; energizing his core.

Ron constantly worked at finding the best and most efficient mental image for himself, as well as how to attract the magic to his core. After two hours he felt he'd gotten a decent handle on how the cultivation technique worked, so he ended the session.

It felt…good. He felt more in tune with his magic, and it felt…purer, stronger.

Now that he'd gotten his cultivation technique, he ran a check on how many clones he'd be able to make, and was impressed that he could now make four.

Pulling up his quests, and opening up a notebook, Ron started figuring out what he could do in a day with four clones; he adjusted his quests so he could earn more points.

'I'll definitely have my other two techniques by the end of the year, but with this new increase of magic and more clones I'll probably have earned enough by the end of November at least, instead of the end of December like I originally thought.'

Chewing on the end of his quill, Ron was lost in thought for a moment, before looking at the time. 'Oops, time to wind down and finish my evening's meditations. And tomorrow I'll really start on the path of abusing the cheat that is clones. The more I cultivate, the more clones I can make, the more I cultivate!' Ron started villain laughing in his head.

* * *

A few weeks later Ron was out solo exploring the muggle side of Cairo in the evening with a mild notice-me-not on him. The notice-me-not made the muggles ignore his skin color. He'd discovered last week that going about in the muggle side of things without the spell up led to a lot of attention from everyone. No one was hateful about his pale skin tone; if anything they were the opposite, very friendly. A little too friendly. It's what happens when you have an ethnically homogenous people; the kids running around are curious and have lots of questions because outside of movies they've never seen a white boy. He was hardly able to get ten feet in half an hour without being rude by ignoring everyone.

So with a notice-me-not he was able to hang out without all the attention. He'd been going out every few days to just hang about, play some pickup football games. Sometimes he'd hang around some of the outdoor cafes where some of the older generation would sit, sipping tea, playing chess or checkers and just talking. It was a different culture compared to what he'd grown up knowing, in either life, and it was all new and fascinating to him.

As Ron was wandering the streets on this day as the sun set he suddenly realized that the streets were deserted. Usually there'd still be people running errands or returning home from work. It was very unusual for everyone to be off the streets.

Feeling a chill run down his spine at the strangeness of the empty streets, Ron was wondering what he should do. Hang around to see what's going on, or beat feet out of there. In his indecisiveness Ron simply stood in place for a few minutes while looking around, when he heard the scuffing of feet around a corner of the street, and what sounded like something being dragged.

Quickly deciding to hide for the time being, to better ascertain what was happening, Ron bolted for the nearest alley. Crouching down behind some debris so he could see what was coming in the street while remaining hidden, Ron waited while breathing slow and steady to remain quiet.

The sounds of dragging and footsteps grew closer. From around the corner 6 men shuffled, dragging two bundles. As they got closer, Ron could see that the bundles were two men tied up, being dragged along. Fear was visible on their faces, despite the bruises and gags.

Ron didn't know what he should do. Six against one odds weren't really good, even with his strength, unless he used magic. If he used magic outside his trunk he'd be caught by the ministry net. He so didn't need that.

And he didn't even know what was going on here. For all he knew the two men being dragged may be criminals in for some homebrewed justice. If that was the case it would make sense why everyone in the neighborhood vanished. If they see nothing, they can't tell the authorities anything.

While struggling with the decision of whether or not he should interfere, the men had turned another corner. 'Well, indecision is also a decision in and of itself' Ron thought mockingly to himself. 'At least I can follow along to see what's going on.' He finally decided.

Putting action to thought, Ron started following as quietly as he could. He stayed far enough back that he wouldn't be caught, but at least be able to see which turns they were taking.

After about 15 minutes they arrived at their destination, a single story house that had quite a bit of grounds that separated it from the closest neighbor. The grounds didn't seem well tended, weeds growing and detritus casually strewn about.

Once the group of men had entered the house and closed the doors, Ron spent a few minutes observing the house, to see if anyone was on watch that would notice him approach. Seeing nothing, Ron moved as quietly as he could up to the house, looking to see if he could peep through a window to see what was happening.

All the windows were shuttered, he could only see a little through the cracks. The house looked to be empty. Ron moved around to the rear of the house, where he saw some windows at ground level, indicating there was a basement.

Crouching next to the window Ron peeked in through the cracks, and could see the six men standing in a semicircle with the stairs at their back, the two captives still tied lay on the floor, squirming around. On the wall opposite the stairs was a door. All 8 men seemed to be staring at this door; the two captives in fear, while the six standing had no expression whatsoever. Ron was getting more creeped out the longer he watched.

Three of the six captors started moving, one each to cut the ropes of the captives, freeing them, and one to open the door, then they moved back to their semicircle. As soon as the captives were free they tried to make a break for the stairs, but were thrown back to the floor, close by the door.

As they got up, looking like they were going to make another rush for the stairs, they and Ron heard a loud chittering sound from the room beyond the door. The two men stopped and turned to look at the door. Ron held his breath.

Out of the door strode two creatures. They walked on two legs, and hunched over they were a little less than five feet tall. Skeletally thin, their skin was a blood red, almost looking like muscle instead of skin. Instead of hands they sported two feet long scythe blades that rested along their forearms similar to how praying mantis hold their arms. Instead of a face they seemed to have muzzles with large teeth jutting out of their lipless maws. Malevolent red glowing eyes were focused on the two captives; they spared no attention to anyone else in the room.

Just as the two captives started to scream, the two creatures jumped on them. The creatures landed on their victims, crouching on top of their torsos. The scythe-arms plunged into the shoulders of the unfortunate victims and the creatures seemed to burrow into the bodies. The men fell down, convulsing from having the creatures burrowing into them.

Ron wasn't able to move, eyes fixed to what was happening in the room, hands clamped over his own mouth to make sure he didn't make a sound. After a minute, the bodies fell still. Ron expected the creatures would emerge from whatever they'd done to the bodies at this point, but he was soon proven wrong. The bodies started awkwardly standing up on their own, but when Ron saw the bodies glowing red eyes he finally understood that those creatures had taken over the men's bodies somehow.

Clenching his jaw and breathing deeply through his nose to keep himself from vomiting at what he'd witnessed, Ron was about to bolt when he heard a familiar chittering from behind him.

Stiffening up for a moment in fear, he turned around and saw what he was afraid of. One of those red skinned creatures was behind him.

Before he could do anything, it jumped on him, plunging its scythe arms into him. In that instant he was able to feel the intense pain those other two men had; then his body poofed into smoke.

* * *

Back at the inn in Ginny's trunk Ron prime and Ginny were tossing stinging hexes and jokes at each other while blocking, deflecting, or dodging each other's spells. They had read in some dueling books that it was good to practice with stinging hexes to build up good reaction speed and habits before using some of the serious spells. If they had to stop every minute to reverse some hex or heal damage they'd never get anywhere with their reflexes. There would also be the chance that they would take away the wrong lesson from their practice.

A fighter or duelist needed to be able to be fearless and bold in their style. Not necessarily feeling no fear, but able to compartmentalize it so the fear didn't affect their style of fighting.

If at the beginning of their training they kept getting hit by harmful spells, they wouldn't be able to build their individual style effectively. Instead they would be conditioned to be so fearful of being hit that they would likely focus on defense and dodging beyond anything else. If one is in a fight and only focuses on defense, they will eventually be overcome.

So the fear of being hit, while healthy in moderate doses, could be deadly if it led to them not actively seeking methods to regain the initiative in a fight.

Just as Ron was about to side step one of the hexes Ginny sent his way the memories from his clone came to him. The fear and pain his clone felt caused him to instead stumble face first into the stinging hex, before he collapsed to the floor.

Ginny gaped for a moment at the unusual happening, before rushing to his side. "Ron! Are you okay, what happened?!"

Still lying on the floor, face aching from the stinging hex, Ron groaned out a reply, "I'm fine, just lost my concentration for a bit."

A stubborn look came over Ginny's face as she scowled at Ron. "Don't give me that! In the past three weeks we've been dueling, that's never happened. If you're getting sick or something we need to tell mum so you don't get worse." Ginny snapped at Ron.

"No, no, I'm not getting sick, I swear I'm fine." Ron tried to placate her, unsuccessfully if her expression was anything to go by. "I suppose you're not letting this go?"

Ginny just crossed her arms in answer, scowl set in her face.

"And you're definitely going to tattle on me to mum?" Ron mused, hoping to convince her not to be a snitch.

"Don't you give me any of that! If I was sick and hiding it all my big dumb brothers would be the first to go report to mum."

'Another fail.' Ron thinks to himself as he sits up. "Give me a minute Ginny."

With another scowl Ginny settles in to wait. Ron can tell she's not exactly patient at the moment.

Ron starts debating what to tell her. On the one hand, telling some of his secrets are definitely out, but how much should he tell her? He's definitely going to get together with Bill, who has been living here in Egypt for a while, and tell him about those creatures. If they're running around who knows how big of a problem they are, and they seem to be multiplying, kidnapping people to take over.

But how is he going to explain how he knows? No one will really believe him if he doesn't show them the clone technique. Maybe just show Ginny and have her back him up? If he shows Bill or his parents the clone technique who knows what they'll do with it. They may even try to give it to the goblins or the ministry to try to get back in their good books, but that technique is his, dammit! He worked his ass off to get it and there's no way he's just gonna give up the advantage it gives him to some randos that he has no connection with or benefit from! Not that they could even use it without the proper physique. But who knows if someone in this world had the proper physique without really knowing it?

He wouldn't mind sharing the clone technique with Ginny when she can handle it; she's been a very good and fun sister. But how to contain it so she doesn't blab to anyone he doesn't want? If only he had a magical contract-

'I'm an idiot!' Ron proclaims in his mind. **[Store]**

Searching around, Ron finds a section for magical contracts. Using the function of the store associated with contracts he enters what he wants to happen. Ron will impart the clone technique to Ginny, and she will keep quiet about it. There's no punishment clause needed, because their magic will make sure that both sides keep their bargain. Ron makes sure there are ending clauses to the contract. 'There's no need to keep it going forever, long past the time it's needed. And when me and Ginny are both adults and not controlled by our parents, she can teach it to her future husband and kids when they're ready for it.'

After purchasing the contract from the store, Ron prepares himself for the argument he's sure will come.

"Alright Ginny, you win. I'll tell you." She smiles, happy to come out ahead. "But!" Ron stops her jubilation in her win. "There's a stipulation. The spell that is at the heart of this secret is very very valuable. I went through a lot to get this spell, and if anyone else even gets a hint at what this spell can do, it will be very dangerous for our family. Like using the Cruciatus on the lot of us to get the secret and disappear our bodies after they get the secret." Ron sternly warns Ginny.

Hearing the seriousness in his voice, she gulps and nods.

"So the stipulation is a magical contract. With the contract, your magic will insure your silence, so if you're ever about to accidently talk about it around anyone who isn't in on the secret, your magic will protect the secret by not letting you say anything about it."

Ginny hesitantly interrupts, "Isn't this going a bit too far? It can't be that bad, can it?"

"The spell itself isn't bad at all, really. But the uses for it are so great that half the wizarding world would go to war to get it, and the other half would go to war to keep it out of their hands so they can't abuse it." Even telling people they don't have the correct blood to use it wouldn't stop them. After all there's many people that have the whole If-I-can't-use-it-destroy-it-so-no-one-else-can attitude. After pausing a bit for Ginny to think about it. "So, if you still want to learn about it, are you willing to sign the contract? This spell will really help you in many aspects, so despite the danger I think it's worth it. And the contract will help you keep it secret." Ron encouraged her.

After thinking about it for a while, Ginny agreed to sign the contract. After signing the contract, Ron explains the clone technique to Ginny. He then shows her a clone, and explains how he's been using it to go to classes, study, do homework, and practice magic while he himself either exercises or practices occlumency.

At this point Ginny has lost all her trepidation at how "dangerous" the spell is. Of course, being the smart girl she is, she realizes how dangerous it would be if the dark families or Voldemort supporters had the technique. They would always have an alibi, and they would always outnumber the aurors or light families in battle. Dangerous indeed.

Ron then taught her the diagnostic charm that would let her know how many clones she could safely make, which ended up being only one for now. So Ron explained in depth the dangers of the technique, namely if they tried to make more clones than they had magic for they could exhaust their magic, cripple their magic, or even kill themselves by using up their life force. So it's important to always make sure they have enough magic for the clones before casting it.

Ginny took the warnings seriously, and paid proper attention. She, however, was not able to use it after an hour. It looks like she really wouldn't be able to use it until he got her a bloodline. That would be the next thing he'd purchase, even if it set his other cultivation techniques back by a bit. With his additional clones, he should still be able to reach the quests he already set.

Ron genuinely enjoyed teaching Ginny, and loved seeing his little sister happy to learn magic. He decided right then that he'd make sure she was one of the most powerful witches around. When she finally gets some clones working, she'll soar. Clones alone: damned useful. Clones + perfect recall from occlumency: overpowered.

"Well, it looks like you really won't be able to use it until I make the proper potion for your use. It might take a week though." This got Ginny pouting that she couldn't do it right now. Potions were, naturally, Ron's cover for buying her a bloodline potion from the store.

"Okay Ginny" Ron interrupted her pouting. "Now that you know about the clone technique, can you guess what happened during our duel?"

After thinking about it, Ginny came to the conclusion, "One of your clones popped and distracted you with the memories?"

"Yup. It was some pretty intense, scary memories. Do you want to see?" He egged her on. 'It would be good to let her see this, so she knows to keep her guard up. Never know when you'll run into monsters.'

"Yes, show me." She firmly states.

"Okay. Get your trunk to bring up a pensieve so we can view them."

Once the pensieve is in place, Ron places the memory in it. "Go ahead; I'll be right behind you Ginny." She touches the silver liquid memory with her finger, and vanishes into the pensieve. Ron then follows suite.

Ron decided to start the memory from when he noticed the street was empty. As they followed memory Ron, Ginny started getting more and more nervous. At one point she even held his hand, to ease her nervousness.

When she saw the creatures, she screamed. She started hyperventilating when she saw them attack the men. At that point Ron paused the memory, to let her get hold of herself.

When she was composed, Ron started the action again. Seeing the men stand up again was frightening, but she held herself together until she saw one of them attack memory Ron. Seeing him poof out of existence and the room change to their duel where Ron got nailed in the face gave her some measure of relief, laughing at his expense.

"Ron…" Ginny started to say.

"Yeah, it was pretty intense." He replies.

Ginny then slaps him upside the head. "You utter prat!" She yells. "If that weren't a clone, you'd be dead!"

Rubbing the back of his head ruefully Ron replied, "Well, I wouldn't have taken the chance of following them if it wasn't a clone, to be honest. If I was there and not a clone I would have made one to see what was going on. The chance of getting caught, even if it was just a bunch of muggles, would be too great for me to chance it by myself."

"Well at least you have some common bloody sense!"

Chuckling at her reaction, Ron readily agrees. "Hey, your friend Luna can draw, right?"

"Yeah. Why?" Ginny was a little confused at the sudden change in topic.

"Well, I was hoping you'd have learned a bit too. I'm pants at it so I was hoping you'd at least be able to make a sketch of it so we can show it to Bill tonight or tomorrow. These things are roaming around the city killing people. We can't let them get away with it. Maybe Bill knows who to contact about it, since he's been here so long." Ron explains.

"I can give it a shot. I'm nowhere near as good as Luna though." Ginny offers.

"Well, as long as the basic shape is there, it should be good. I don't really want to tell Mum and Dad though. They'd lock us up for the rest of summer!"

"Mum totally would too. I'll get started on it now." Ginny agrees.

* * *

The next morning Ron and Ginny convinced Bill they need to talk to him before he leaves for work. When they sit down in Ginny's section of their room, Ron explains about what he'd seen after Ginny brings out her picture.

Bill's face goes pale when he figures out how close to danger his brother was. Ron manfully suffers under the lecture and guilt trip of how heartbroken the family would be while Ginny smirks at him from out of line of sight of Bill. They both know he wasn't really in danger, but can't talk about it, so he suffers in silence, nodding and agreeing he won't be so reckless anymore.

Bill explains that what he saw is called a Bone Thief and there are three versions of it with different colored skin; red, blue, and green. They occasionally run into them in some of the crypts they work in. If they've gotten loose in the muggle world, they need to contain them before the muggles find out about them.

Because it would be too difficult to give directions to the house, Bill decides that after sending out a message to the relevant authorities he'd get someone from his team to join him and go with Ron to point out the house and then send him back to the inn by portkey.

After Ron showed Bill and his two coworkers the house, he ended up confined to the inn with Ginny and the twins. Bill didn't forget to let their parents know what was going on and how reckless he'd been, so he still got in trouble with their parents and confined for the rest of summer. 'Traitor brother!' Ron more than once exclaimed in his mind now that he had to suffer the overbearing protection of his parents.

Bill had been away for 3 days while the assault teams made sure to tag everyone of the Bone Thiefs. They had been spending the first two days making sure there weren't any more nests around. If they had attacked first and there were some out and about, they'd have gone into hiding and made it that much more difficult to hunt them all down.

Of course despite doing such a good deed by reporting the presence of such creatures, Ron was still under house arrest by his parents. 'No good deed goes unpunished indeed. Well, despite being confined to the inn for the rest of summer, at least I'm not under 24/7 surveillance so I can still cultivate, exercise, and duel with Ginny. So it's not all bad. But dang I can't wait to get back to Hogwarts now.' Ron complained to himself because he didn't seem to get any sympathy from anyone else.

Now that he was spending even more time with Ginny, he was noticing how quickly she was picking up occlumency and magic in general. She really was talented, just needed the right motivation and mind set to bring it out.

Ron also discovered that Ginny and Luna had a pair of communication mirrors that let them keep in touch during the summer, and that all last year Ginny had been sharing her trunk library with Luna. Their friendship was stronger than ever and since Luna was such a Ravenclaw, Ginny was inspired to take full advantage of the library to learn in order to keep up with Luna.

From what Ron could see they could skip the whole first year, having already studied all of last year. After asking Ginny about it, he learned that that was actually the plan Ginny and Luna came up with so they could be in the same year as Harry and Hermione. And now that Ron wasn't being such a prat it was good to be in the same year as him. 'Thanks sister.' Ron sarcastically thought to himself, but he knew it was the truth. Before he took over for Ron, he was a young boy spoiled by his family so he could be very bratty, pratty, brattish, or prattish.

After some begging by Ginny Ron finally admitted that, yes, he had more UMALTs, and yes Luna could have one. Yes, if Luna matched one of the wands she could have it as a spare. It took work on Ginny's part but Ron finally conceded that if, when they got to Hogwarts and Luna signed the contract that she could also learn the clone technique.

Ginny really didn't want to outpace her friend. Ron didn't mind too much, because he liked Luna a lot. She was one of his favorite characters from the books, and after meeting her Ron thought she was even better in person than in the story.

Ron did however put his foot down on telling the Potters, and refused to budge. "Ginny, I think the Potters are decent people, and I like them. But I'm not bringing them into this anytime soon. I'm not really close to them, and I get the feeling they don't exactly feel close to me either. I refuse to share with someone who isn't close to me and who won't sign the contract."

He continued, "The potion to make you able to use clones is very difficult and can't be made in mass quantities or quickly. If I bring the Potters into this, they'll want to bring in all their extended family. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can't be done within a couple of years at least. So for now, the answer is absolutely not. If after this year is over, things have changed, then we can revisit the question, okay?"

Ginny, a little bit subdued agreed finally.

"And I don't want you going around trying to push them to hang out with me this year to try to get us closer together. When someone does stuff like that it feels like they have an ulterior motive in being your friend, like they want something from you. The Potters already have too many people like that to deal with, and I don't want you damaging your friendship with them by trying too hard. They've really helped you out a lot, and you just need to be a good friend. Don't push too hard and damage what you've got, okay?" Ron concluded.

"Okay, you're probably right." Ginny sighed, but gave Ron a hug for being a decent brother, which caused Ron to high-five himself in his head for getting it right.

* * *

By the first week of August Ron had enough to purchase a bloodline changer potion for Ginny from the store. Ron figured in two more weeks he'd have enough for one for Luna, and by the end of September he'd have his Body Cultivation technique.

So with the appropriate warnings to Ginny of how much the bloodline potion would hurt and the need to endure it, Ron put up some silencing charms and got ready to cast some enervate spells to make sure Ginny didn't waste the potion.

Ron didn't end up needing to use spells on Ginny, she passed through the pain just fine on her own. Just like him though, as soon as the potion ran its course, she slept for 12 hours.

When Ginny finally woke up, Ron was waiting with a large jug of water, for which Ginny was suitably thankful for.

After showering, eating, and getting their chores out of the way, Ginny couldn't wait to make a clone. Which she did on the first try. Cheering and jumping around at her success was a pretty funny scene to Ron.

* * *

Ron woke up early on September 1st. He was glad the summer of incarceration was finally over. And he made sure his family knew it while making sure everyone was up in time and through the international floo in time to get to platform 9 ¾ by 10:30am. 'None of the usual Weasley 10:59 b.s.' Ron emphatically thought as he followed behind Ginny to look for either Luna or an empty cabin to wait for her.

Ron found himself on the verge of thinking this would be a good year, when he realized he'd be tempting Murphy too much. 'It's still a Harry Potter universe. Let's just wait and see what happens.' Ron concluded.


	13. Chapter 13

"Lovegood, Luna" called out Professor Flitwick from atop the platform placed in front of the professor's table for the sorting ceremony. The young blond girl lightheartedly skipped up to the stool, plopping the sorting hat on her head.

Ron was seated among the Ravenclaws, waiting for the sorting to end, and eager for the feast to commence. He wasn't entirely sure if it's solely because of the intense exercise that he was doing or the fact that he was Ron Weasley, but he was almost always hungry. 'Well, at least I eat with my mouth closed, don't talk with food in my mouth, and don't bite off hands that are reaching for my bacon at breakfast' Ron snorted to himself, remembering some of the crack fics he'd read before.

"Ravenclaw!" announced the sorting hat.

Ron clapped and cheered for the new Ravenclaw, as she skipped up to their table, and hopped into a seat next to him. 'A Ravenclaw is bound to be a Ravenclaw after all' Ron thought, as apparently the time she'd been spending with the Potter's the past year wasn't enough to convince her to join the house of the Lions.

"Congratulations Luna! And welcome!" Ron greeted Luna.

"Thank you Ron. You're looking ever so much more like a Ronald than a Carl since the last I saw."

'That's Luna for you, right out of nowhere' Ron chuckled to himself. "Thanks Luna, I'm feeling much more settled now."

Beaming a megawatt smile at Ron, Luna congratulated him on that. As the sorting continued, Ron continued to chat with Luna quietly; mostly about the few wizard or witch born that she knew that were getting sorted. Ron was getting the impression that Luna wasn't close with any of them; she was simply sharing bits and pieces of her impression of their encounters.

Professor Flitwick finally got to the last name. "Weasley, Ginerva."

"Saved the best for last!" Ron yelled out, which prompted the twins to hoot and holler in concert; earning a blush and glare from Ginny for her brother's shenanigans and giggles from Luna. 'But hey, what are brothers for?' Ron rhetorically asked himself.

"Ravenclaw!" announced the sorting hat.

'Huh, that's a surprise' Ron thought as he clapped for his sister as she made her way to sit next on Luna's other side. 'Looks like Ginny is determined to be best friends with Luna through thick and thin in this life, as well as being focused on learning. Good on her.'

Ron could tell from Harry and Hermione's faces that they were surprised at where Ginny had been sorted. She'd been a Gryffindor in their past life, and seeing her being sorted into Ravenclaw must have thrown them for a loop.

'Yup, get used to the butterfly effect guys' Ron snorted to himselfwhile keeping one eye on the Potters while they had their heads together, seeming to be discombobulated by an actual Weasley being sorted into Ravenclaw. The fact that he himself was Ravenclaw didn't throw them for as much of a loop since they knew his story; but Ginny was the genuine article, and a Weasley not in Gryffindor was an oddity.

Putting the Potters out of his mind, Ron continued to enjoy the feast; only occasionally adding a comment here or there while Ginny and Luna carried the bulk of the conversation.

With the feast finished Headmistress McGonagall gave a few housekeeping announcements and they were released to their houses for the night. 'Huh, no Hoggywarts song. Guess McG wasn't a fan of the "Magic of Music". At least not when it consisted of the cacophony that Dumbles encouraged' Ron mused as they made their way to the tower.

* * *

Ron sat down at the dinner table across from Ginny and Luna the next day. "So, what's the verdict?" He queried.

Ginny and Luna first looked at each other, grinned hugely, then turned to Ron. "We passed!" They chorused.

"Congratulations, and welcome to year two of your witchery education!" Laughed Ron, genuinely happy for their accomplishment.

Ginny puffed herself up. "Of course, did you expect anything else?" She mock sternly questioned.

"Uh, of course not! Great faith in you, I have." Ron replied in tone implying much Yoda wisdom. 'I'm glad the Potters introduced Star Wars to all these ignorant wizards and witches last year. There's nothing worse than throwing out pop culture references only to be left hanging.' He over exaggerated to himself.

"Try, there was not; only do." Chimed in Luna, who seemed to really love the little muppet after seeing the movies. Although she did cry when Luke chopped off the Wampa's arm, or the "Lovely Snow Strider" as she labeled it. Something about the probable fate of her being weakened and not being able to hunt to feed her cubs, even though Luke couldn't very well feed himself to them, he had Things To Do, after all.

They continued to laugh and joke as they made their way up to Ron's room, where he proceeded to gift Luna with a UMALT, as he'd promised Ginny earlier in the summer, as well as a spare wand and wand holsters.

Ginny meanwhile was trying to convince Luna to join them in exercising in the morning. Luna didn't seem especially interested to do so until she was informed that it would help with her magic, her ability to go on expeditions, and that they could come up with a routine for her that wouldn't be overly repetitive and boring. Thankfully with the mini-RoR function of the UMALT, they would be able to come up with obstacle courses and scavenger hunts to break up the monotony.

Ron and Ginny were actually pleased by this innovation of Luna's; it made exercising much more fun. Ron realized he'd been heavily influenced by his knowledge of gyms and exercise from his past life that he hadn't even thought to innovate his routine with the magical resources he now had. He could slap himself. Here he was with basically a holodeck, and all he was making was a simple track to run on. He'd have to see if he could figure something out for dueling practice, building reflexes, and even practicing martial arts.

Thinking about Worf's battle programs on the holodeck, where he'd have opponents of differing skill levels, Ron deciding to test out his mini-RoR out, to see what it could accomplish. Unfortunately it did have limitations. Ron didn't know any martial arts, and he had no books about them in his library for the mini-RoR to pull information from. So until he could get a knowledge base set up, he wouldn't be able to create training programs to learn any physical fighting skills.

And as dedicated to learning magic as Ron was, he recognized that learning martial arts would be a benefit to being able to defend himself. It still took a second or two to pull his wand and cast a spell, so if someone were to ambush and grab him, it would still be quicker to use some judo moves to toss them like a rag doll before being able to employ the magics.

After Ron, Ginny, and Luna decided on their workout and study schedule, they were able to convince Luna to sign the secrecy contract so Luna could learn the clone technique. Since it was only Wednesday, Ron decided that he'd give the potion to Luna on Friday evening, to give her plenty of time to recover on the weekend. Up until then, she could practice molding magic in the necessary pattern for the technique.

While Ginny and Ron were chatting, Luna was practicing the clone technique. Suddenly a poof of smoke enveloped the room. When the smoke cleared, Ron saw there were two Luna's. "Hahaha, nice one Luna! Looks like you had the right physique that you didn't even need the potion!" Ron cheered for her, and for himself, having not needed to spend his valuable points for her to be able to use the clones.

Both Luna's gave a gracious curtsy, "Why thank you Ron. It is so nice to be appreciated." The four of them then continued to plan their schedule now that Luna had so quickly picked up the clone technique and they didn't need to wait for the weekend.

Later that night Ron browsed the store to find an item that he'd be able to use to test someone's bloodline, so in the future he wouldn't willy nilly be adding bloodlines that might not play well together.

The next day when Ron used the item he purchased from the store he found that Luna had a mixed witch/mutated Byakugan bloodline. That would explain her silver colored eyes, and how they seemed to be slightly protuberant. Likely her magic was always being fed to her eyes. After testing her field of view, she had about 320 degrees of vision. Not quite the 360 degrees that the original Byakugan had, but the Byakugan didn't normally give ninjas extra-dimensional visions either. So there's that.

Ron figured that her mutated Byakugan had been always active almost since birth. He wondered if Luna had ever not seen 320 degrees. After practicing control over her internal magic for a bit, she was able to lessen the amount of magic that flowed through her eyes. For the first time in her life, her Byakugan deactivated, letting her see exactly what everyone else always sees. It even shut her off from seeing all the extra-dimensional critters.

Luna obviously didn't enjoy have such limited vision compared to what she was used to. It would be like for other people losing one of their eyes, becoming half blind. But it did finally open her eyes, so to speak, of how other people view the world and why they never seemed to understand half the things she said.

Not that Luna was going to change any. "The limited way people see the world is fascinating" she declared, as if she had found a new animal to study "but it's like a litmus test of friendship. Those not open to friendship with someone like me let me know right away, so I never have to wonder."

Which prompted Ginny and Ron to reassure their Luna that they are definitely her friends, and she better not forget it; leaving a small heartfelt smile on her lips.

* * *

Over the month of September Ron noticed there was a marked increase in the number of times he was pressed into studying in the library with Ginny and Luna where the Potters were conspicuously present. Compared to last year where he did his own thing and they did their thing, it was obvious who was behind it.

His sister obviously didn't give up on the idea of making her now-decent-brother-who-she-wasn't-overly-embarrassed-by become friends with Harry and Hermione; she simply recruited some back-up in Luna and became sneakier.

After considering his options, Ron decided to just accept it. If she cared enough about it to go to such lengths it would be rude of him, as well as damaging to their sibling relationship, to confront her about it and force her to stop.

He himself wasn't necessarily opposed to being their friend. He was after all a fan of the characters in the story. It's just that he was still wearing the face of Ron Weasley, and he didn't want to push Harry and Hermione's patience. He was still wary of the two after they ambushed him last year, and wasn't totally confident that he'd be able to protect himself yet.

Ron had just begun on fourth year material, so he was pretty far ahead of all his peers, and didn't really fear anyone below sixth year. His exercising and dueling with Ginny gave him some confidence in that. But this was Harry, who had incredible reflexes and over eight years of experience on him; and Hermione, the crafty bookworm from hell that loved studying magic and had access to the Black library. There's no way Ron wasn't concerned.

But so far the Potters seemed willing to be friendly, at least in the study sessions they attended. It also helped that there was always a large gathering of all their year mates from all houses in the library coming and going as they needed for their studies. So if sometimes Hermione needed some space from his presence, as Ron noticed from her clenched jaw and deep breaths, he was able to quickly hop off to another table to start a discussion with study partners about charms or whatnot to give her space.

Ron didn't think that Ginny had caught on to the underlying tension, but he saw that Luna did. It was hard to hide from her eyes, after all. But Luna didn't ask any questions. Ron was very grateful for that mercy at least. She seemed to see it as exposure therapy. 'Who knows, it might work' Ron hopefully thought.

When Hermione's birthday party came around Ron decided the best gift he could give her would be a copy of his amazing occlumency book. He didn't know if she had found any books on the subject yet, but it seemed to him that Harry and Hermione hadn't started the practice yet, if her sometimes emotional responses were any indication. Being able to go through her memories and file them and the emotions connected to them away would probably help her cope. And this form of occlumency was a far cry from having some greasy bastard yell at you to "Clear your mind" before bulldozing your mind. So there's that.

* * *

Because Ron hadn't needed to purchase a bloodline potion for Luna, he was able to purchase his body cultivation technique by the 21st of September. After purchasing the test crystal, he found the best technique for him was something called [The Running Fool].

 _"This body cultivation technique is designed for one thing: Speed. Get this into your head right now, fool: Speed is King. Hit the enemy before they even know you're there. Dodge their attacks before they even land. The body moves fast, the mind needs to think fast too, fool. In all things Speed is King._

 _Strength, endurance, and toughness will all be pounded into your body by the forces that are a result of chasing after speed. You will become a fool for speed, and with speed you will make a fool of everyone else._

 _The method to attain this is to run, fool. You'll run in straight lines. You'll run in zigzags. You'll run on your hands. You'll run on all fours. You'll run on one arm and on one leg. You'll run under gravity. You'll run carrying weights. You'll run while pulling things. You'll run while pushing things. You'll run up trees, you'll run down cliffs. You'll run across water, and even air. You'll run in your sleep, and in your dreams. You will become a running fool. And when you do, you'll become speed, and become King."_

'Huh, that description is full of character.' Ron paused in thought. 'Or rather it's full of YOOOOOOOUTH!' Ron cracked himself up. 'As extreme as it sounds, becoming a speed demon sounds awesome. And it is supposed to be the most suitable for me. Let's do it.'

After purchasing [The Running Fool] from the store the information sank into his head. Everything from what type and amounts of food he'd need to keep up his energy, to exercises and benchmarks to work for entered his head. Proper running forms, how to build fast twitch muscles, how to speed up his thinking process, and reaction speeds. How to process his senses at high speeds. How to use his magic as a sense organ during high speed.

With the guidance of his cultivation technique, Ron stopped worrying about keeping his strength, dexterity, and constitution even; and just focused on speed. 'Like the technique said, with the weights, gravity, and extremely strange running methods my strength and endurance will follow along with speed. But to sacrifice speed for something else would make me a fool!' Ron chuckled while vowing to never get in the habit of actually talking like that, and to stay away from green spandex. Stay away from spandex altogether, in fact.

* * *

On the 3rd of December Ron purchased his third cultivation technique, [Taconite Caravel]. This was a cultivation technique to strengthen his soul, and when he got the download on the technique's methods it made him think of Buddhist monk chants. It had mnemonics to chant and breathing rhythms to employ while meditating that will absorb magic energy to strengthen his soul and will.

There were also autobiographies of previous cultivators concerning their experiences and understandings downloaded to his head. Based on stories Ron had read in his past life the importance of life experiences in the path of cultivation cannot be stressed enough. But having these journals was just a guide for him. He'd have to experience it for himself to fully comprehend and be able to use the knowledge.

This is similar to the difference between reading how to cast a spell, and practicing until he could cast the spell. Just because he knows how something should be done means nothing until he's able to do it for himself.

Now that he had his cultivation techniques, he settled into a routine of having one clone go to class, one to practice [Taconite Caravel], one to practice [Lightning Rod], and one to study magic while he practiced [The Running Fool] throughout the day. After class was over, he had the extra clone do his homework in both his magic class as well as his correspondence courses for his GCSEs.

Ron had dueling practices with Ginny and Luna in the evenings. Now that there were three of them dueling, they often practiced how to face off in groups. 2 vs. 1, 3 vs. 1, 3 vs. 2, and free-for-alls made for good training on how to handle different battle situations. Clones are right handy for padding the numbers.

* * *

The leaving feast for the Christmas break in the Great Hall was rambunctious. Everyone was excited for the break from school. Ron was no exception as he chatted with Ginny and Luna while making sure he enjoyed all the delicacies made by the House-Elfs.

After the feast was over and his group of three met up with the Potters to ride the carriages to the train, Ron pondered over the change in attitude Hermione and Harry had displayed over the month of December.

Throughout the term both Harry and Hermione had been cordial, but kept their distance from Ron. At the beginning of December however their attitude had abruptly changed to being actually friendly, up to the point they'd actually seem to enjoy the time they spent together.

At first Ron had been confused, but was unwilling to rock the boat by asking about the change in attitude. Halfway through December he'd been approached by Harry and asked if they could talk apart from everyone else.

"We've heard that you were going to stay in the castle for the Christmas break." Harry opened up by asking.

"Yup. Our parents will be busy at the inn during the Christmas break and they wanted to save the cost of a trip for other expenses. So, at the castle I stay. With no adult supervision or classes it'll be fun to do what I want." Ron casually replied.

Harry seemed to sink in thought for a bit. "With what we paid for the trunks you could easily afford the trip." He half questioned, half accused.

"True, but I haven't let anyone know about that nest egg. Then they'd ask about how I got it, and want to take control of it so I don't waste it all like on quidditch memorabilia and toys and the like. It's just better not to even bring it up to them." Ron explained.

"But what about using that to make their lives a bit better? Do they not really feel like family to you?" Harry queries while seeming to be extremely interested in Ron's reply.

Ron pauses for a moment to ponder where Harry seems to be coming from. Who was Harry Potter? An orphan that lost everything in his life while walking a tough road, he received a second chance at life and seems to be doing everything in his power to hold tightly to the family he's built. 'This is more than just idle questioning. Harry seems to be trying to get to understand if I hold the same value for family that he does. This could be one of those Telltale game moments where if I answer wrong a popup message will let me know that Harry will remember me not caring about family. Ugh, no save states.' Ron joked to himself while considering how to answer in a way to make sure Harry understood him.

"Harry, let me ask you something. What do you think constitutes a family?" Ron finally questioned in answer.

Harry had a confused look on his face at the question, but as he thought about it his expression firmed into conviction. "Love, and a desire to spend time together. To help each other."

Ron paused as he let that answer and all it implies sink into his mind. "Good answer. I agree with you on that." Ron said while nodding his head. "There are some that would have different opinions. Some might say that the mutual benefits of banding together to be a powerful politic and economic entity is key."

At Harry's look of disgust Ron couldn't help but laugh loudly.

"Yeah, looking at your face you wouldn't agree. And I'm sure they wouldn't put it in those terms, but that seems to be how some of these pureblood families operate. Any loyalty they have only extends as far as the benefits they receive from their association with the family."

After mutual assurances that they both thought the idea was distasteful in the extreme, Ron continued. "I think the setbacks my family went through last year, and the struggle they have now is actually, in a way, good for them."

At Harry's questioning look Ron continued. "First we have our dad, Arthur, who was content to just drift in his job, not doing anything as an example to his children. He let his wife trample over him, doing whatever she wants, never putting his foot down. Say what you will about women's rights in this day and age, and by saying that I'm being chauvinistic, but in reality, a marriage is a partnership. If one side, the wife or the husband, have all the power, then it's not an equal relationship. Arthur wasn't fulfilling his part either as a partner to Molly, or as an example to his kids."

"Molly suffered also from Arthur's decision not to be assertive. She became so used to being the authority, the one in the right, and never wrong that she lost all sense of perspective and ability to rein herself in. In the family unit the parents are the ultimate authority, it's true, but she got such a big head she thought she could dictate the actions of anyone around her, not just her family. So anyone not doing what she wants deserves a yelling, or a howler, or some swats through hexing to be put in their place."

"So the wakeup call to both Arthur and Molly that they need to change was both painful and needed." Harry nodded in agreement. "Last year when we went home to the Burrow to clean it out I actually gave them a few suggestions of what they could do to make a living while staying in country." Ron went on to explain his ideas to Harry and why his parents didn't do it.

"That…could actually work!" Harry exclaimed, stunned that Arthur and Molly didn't even try it out.

"Yup." Ron agreed with Harry. "And think about this. Arthur was the head of the misuse of muggle artifacts office and he couldn't even handle the prospect of doing business in the muggle world. It was such a culture divide for them they'd rather go and work themselves to the bone in an inn making someone else money, rather than cast a few reparos to flip houses because they would have to live and work in the muggle half. What you've changed here at Hogwarts, with introductions to how both sides live, is very needed for these clueless mage born."

After giving Harry a chance to process that, Ron continued. "Previous to that meeting where I gave them those suggestions I didn't really know them, or how they'd react. I mean, reading a series of books that's focused on you doesn't exactly give me much insight into their lives and personalities. It's very unreliable." Harry chuckles along with Ron. "So when I learned more about them, especially this past summer, I realized a couple more things. One is that both Arthur and Molly need to do this to prove their worth to themselves. They've become so invested in their identities as parents and providers that the idea of not working hard for their children's futures would be unthinkable. Now imagine one of their children came to them and just handed them a lot of cash, enough that they didn't need to work anymore. It would end up destroying the purpose for their lives."

"And the second thing is I think deep down, at least for Molly, she views it as a punishment that she deserves. She's the one who, through her temper and attack on you and Hermione, ended up destroying the lives her family were living up to that point. If she doesn't suffer anything for doing that, how can she ever forgive herself? So if the punishment ends before she thinks she's done her time, she'll be lost and unsure how to get to where she wants to be."

Seeing from his face that Harry was understanding where Ron was coming from, Ron continues. "So to answer your questions, at first they didn't feel like family, we were strangers after all. But as I got to know them I do now feel like they are my family. And I do want the best for them, but I don't think that throwing money at this problem will make it go away.

Harry was nodding with a thoughtful look on his face. "That makes a great deal of sense actually."

There was silence as both Harry and Ron were wondering how to go from here.

"So, was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?" Ron questioned.

"Oh, yeah. Almost forgot. Hermione and I were going to invite you to join us for Christmas again this year since you were just staying in the castle. Fred, George, and Ginny's already agreed to come."

"Are you sure? I know last year your group just wanted to meet me to verify for themselves that my story was legit. No need to bring me along and make things awkward just because my siblings are going." Ron offered Harry an out for if they really didn't want him along.

"No, no. Nothing like that. It's actually because of the occlumency book you gave Hermione for her birthday. We've been practicing it, and we've gotten to the part of going through and filing our memories. It's helped us put things in perspective, and divorce ourselves from the emotions of what's happened in the past. As we were doing that we noticed something. You actually don't really look like Ron Weasley anymore. You more look like a cousin of his, especially with growing your hair out as you've done."

Now that Harry mentioned it Ron looked at the memories he'd gotten from the future Ron Weasley, and compared how they looked at the same age. It was true, they really looked different. A large part of it was the Uzumaki genes, subtly changing the contours of his face. Ron had also let his hair grow out because he was thinking of imitating the long haired ninjas from Naruto. It was badass after all. There was also the totally different build he had from exercising so much. All in all, he looked nothing like the old Ron Weasley.

"Huh, I hadn't thought about that." Ron replied. "So, since I look so different it isn't as hard to be around me?" He queried, hopefully.

Harry nodded. "It was such a gradual thing we didn't really catch it until we sorted our memories at the end of November. But by comparing you two, you look and act nothing like the weasel. So we haven't been as conflicted by being around you. And since your sister and Luna are so determined to make it happen, it'd be less effort to just go along with it."

Ron laughed loudly. "I know, right? Before school I even warned Ginny it wouldn't be a good idea to push it so much. Girl nodded along, agreeing with me, and then went right to plotting with the little moon." Harry burst out laughing at that and Ron joined him. After settling down, Ron said, "Sure, I'd love to join you all for Christmas. It's going to be on that sweet beach of yours?"

"Yes, that sweet beach with the gnarly waves."

"Excellent. Party on!"

* * *

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

The snow in February in Scotland lay thick in the forbidden forest.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Everything seemed to be in hibernation. Nothing was moving in the forest. Ron was enjoying the quiet.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Ron breathed out hot air into his cupped hands. Looking around he noticed the acromantula silk plastered around the trees. It looked like he was in their territory. He kept walking.

A spider the size of his bed pounced on Ron.

He moved quickly, leap rolling away from the spider. After dodging the surprise attack, Ron went on the attack, blasting stunning spells at the acromantula. The spider was quick on it's feet, dodging each spell.

Recognizing that they were at an impasse, Ron paused his casting, while continuing the motions of casting. The spider dodged three fake casts until he saw Ron wasn't using magic and stopped his dodging. The spider stared down Ron, drooling from his fangs at the sight of fresh pray in the middle of winter.

Ron kept watch on the acromantula, his wand poised to cast again. "I'm wanting to talk to Aragog. If you lead me to him, this doesn't have to get ugly."

The spider twitches in agreement. It turned around and started leading him towards the nest. As they walk the spider is getting twitchier, until it pauses.

Five spiders the size of a small car leap in concert, leaving no space for Ron to dodge. He tries to roll out of their attack range, but ends up rolling into the fangs of one of the five, the fangs sink into his neck, injecting the paralyzing poison. Just when the spiders are making ready to celebrate, Ron puffs into smoke, leaving the spiders with nothing.

Ron, who was sitting cross legged in meditation, received the memories of his clone who was trying to talk to Aragog.

'Damn, those spiders are bastards. Hagrid is the biggest fool around. Those spiders will attack kids any chance they get. Once I get a corpse of them, though, I should be able to craft a teleport gun. Shoot them and it'll teleport them to my jungle trunk where they can live and make me rich by gathering their silk. Thank you fan fics.' Ron exulted while making plans.

Ron had already talked to the House-Elfs of Hogwarts. Most of them were either resigned to their life, or actually proud of being an elf of the school. Ron was able to get three of them bound to his family. The moment he bound them, they grew three inches, and seemed to gain a lot of backbone, if the way they talked to the Hogwarts elfs was any indication. It wasn't being a snob though if they had the guns to back it up. Magic guns, that is.

"Manky, Babbity, Grue. Front and center!" Ron stated.

In front of him popped three House-Elfs. One male and two females, all at attention.

"At ease." Ron stated. The Elfs went to parade rest. "It has come to my attention that Elf names are assigned by their master." All three Elfs bowed their heads in agreement. "Most of the wizards give Elfs names like Tippy, Dobby, Mimsy, Winky, etc. Names that stress how powerless the Elfs are. That the Elfs are the property of the wizards."

The three Elfs were looking nervous. This was not the kind of talk their kind was allowed to hear.

"I realize that the bond between Wizard and Elf is needed to keep you alive." Ron stated. "But that doesn't mean I need to bind you to be slaves." The Elfs were confused. "We can have the symbiotic bond. It will keep you alive. But I detest slavery. So the bond will not be one of slavery, it will be one of friendship and family."

After cutting his hand, Ron put his bloody palm on the male Elf's head. "I name you Spartacus. Freedom is yours to grasp, within your means. You are the leader and the thinker. We will be your friend, as you shape your people into a great nation!"

A bright flash blinded everyone for a moment. Spartacus was taller by a foot. He fingered the spear and armor he sported, thinking of ways he could convince other elves to join him in freedom.

Ron noticed his hand was healed. Cutting across his palm again, he placed his hand on the first female Elf's head. "I name you Dhalia. Your beauty is as the flower's name, and it makes you aware of unkind plots. Help Spartacus in his efforts, but always guide him when he goes wrong."

The bright flash was expected. Dhalia was a foot taller, and covered by rose petals. She shimmied over to Spartacus and hugged him, draping her form over his.

Ron cut his hand for a third time, placing it on the second female's head. "I name you Dawn. Your beauty will confuse many, but your wisdom will outshine all. You will bind Dhalia and Spartacus into a family, and you three will be a shining light for all Elf-kind."

The three House-Elf were hugging, then kissing, then doing adult things that weren't allowed to be printed here. But one thing was sure, their bond was strong. Very strong. Very strong all over the house. On the counter; against the wall, on the table, pressed against the glass windows. Those House-Elfs have great stamina.

* * *

The academic year was over. Ginny and Luna did great, topping everyone but Harry, Hermione, and him.

Harry and Hermione were planning to join the Weasley's for a couple weeks to explore the wilds of ancient Egypt. With all the families joining them, it was like school never ended.

Ron wasn't sure what would happen this summer, but he was sure it wouldn't be boring.


	14. Chapter 14

Ron sprawled on his bed in the inn in Egypt, late at night on the first day of summer. He was considering exactly what he was going to do about something he'd just found out.

As he'd been idly flipping through pages of the [Store], he'd come across something of a game changer. It was a guild starter set. According to the instructions, he had to simply fill in some information about his guild in the guild charter, place drops of blood of prospective members onto the guild stone for them to join, and then he'd have his guild.

A guild where the members could earn their own store points through quests. They would contribute to the guild, and more and more items would be unlocked to the guild store.

'My life is becoming more and more like a video game!' Ron thought, a little giddy. 'I was already worried about leaving family and friends behind because of my being able to cultivate while none of them were able. Considering how much it cost for me to be able to purchase cultivation techniques for myself, and how much it would cost to purchase for everyone else I want to, it'd take me years of slave labor to get everyone hooked up.'

'Making a guild is the perfect answer. I just need to organize the guild structure, make the rules so no member of the guild can betray the other members, since they'll be magically bound to the guild. Figure out the rules of conduct, inducting new members, how to amend rules that cause more problems than they solve, ensuring that there won't be tyranny, aside from me, bwahaha! No! No! Bad Ron.' Ron sternly rebuked himself for evil villain laughing.

'While I will remain guild leader and ultimate authority that can veto and change rules, this is my guild and my store after all, I mustn't fall into the pitfalls of the evil overlord mindset. Evil Overlords often have people rebel against them and cause their downfall and death. At most I'd prefer to be a CEO of a company type leader. When people rebel against them, they either just leave the company, or buy it out from him. And if people try to buy out my company, well, with the store leaving with me they'd have nothing but a pyrrhic victory.' Ron nodded to himself triumphantly.

Ron set to crafting the rules of his guild. It was important to him that it be a place where each individual's efforts are rewarded. He thought of guilds he'd been a part of in video games where there was no real reward for items donated to the guild, or time spent crafting things, or the guild had imploded because of the perception that dungeon drops weren't distributed fairly.

'While a lot of those video game issues like dungeon drops don't apply, the perceived unfairness is what really hurt them in the long run. So it'll be important to make conflict resolution between members as unbiased as possible. At first I was going to make everything depend on hard evidence, but what if one side is in the right, yet has no evidence? What if the other side is being a sneaky McBackstabber? We've got magic here, let's set up a judging item that causes both sides to reveal the whole truth of the matter. If it's just a case of hurt feelings and misunderstandings both sides can be counseled and mediation set. If someone is being duplicitous and deliberately harmful, I don't want that in my guild. Better to have the truth front and center and deal with the problem than have to pussyfoot around backstabbers for lack of evidence.' Ron resolutely decided.

'Rewards are easy here too. Each member earns their own points. If someone isn't earning points it's their own fault for being lazy. There's no way I'm setting up a system like those clans or sects in cultivation novels. There's always people who are sneaky and love politics that convince everyone else to put them in charge of resources. Once they have control, they play favorites; their lackeys get the lion's share while everyone else is marginalized. That kind of thing encourages backstabbing behavior, and I won't have it.'

'There's also clans that have the lower level members toil as basically slaves. Forced to give up 90% of their earnings or labor for the "privilege" of being protected and raised by the clan. Treated like garbage for their perceived useless-ness, and forced into whatever the clan dictates their life be. Yeah, there's no way my guild is going to be like that!'

'Even parents gifting their kids too much can lead to spoiled behavior. Better to have them earn their own techniques and items. This only applies to guild store purchases anyway. There's nothing saying parents can't spoil their kids with normal goods, toys, and services.'

With the basic setup and rules laid out, Ron decides that he'll start inducting his siblings into his guild sometime this summer. Harry, Hermione, Luna, and their families were going to visit in a couple weeks to go exploring magical Egypt for a few weeks, so he'd get them to join at that point.

Every since Harry and Hermione's attitudes had changed back in December, Ron had become closer with them. He'd even gifted them with the clone technique. Of course they had to sign the secrecy contract, no one is an exemption, but they seemed to love clones just as much as everyone does.

* * *

The sun was beating down upon the dunes, heat waves shimmering over the hot sand. Climbing one of the dunes are several quads in a row, playing follow the leader. Cooling charms are on both the riders and the quads, to keep them from overheating and shutting down in the summer heat of an Egyptian desert.

Ron was riding tail end today, having lost the paper, rock, scissors battle between lead and tail. Which just meant that he got to be the leader and choose the route on the way back.

As they were riding atop a dune, Ron noticed all the riders in front of him were slowing to a halt. Curious as to why they were stopping, Ron maneuvered around the line, where he saw the front quad had been flipped, and the tires on one side shredded.

Shutting his quad down, Ron dismounted, pulled his helmet off, and walked to where the accident happened. "You all right? Looks like something pulled a number on your quad."

"I'm fine. Crashed worse than that on a broom and got right back on." Harry replied from where he was studying his wrecked quad standing next to Remus, Sirius, Fred, and George.

"What did you crash on?" Ginny asked from beside Ron.

"Dunno. Felt like a sharp rock or something." Harry proceeded to lead everyone over to what had caused his accident. "Huh, looks like the tip of a pyramid."

"Only one way to find out for sure, dig it up." Ron stated. "But should we invite everyone else to join us first? It'd be a good idea to have a curse breaker along as well. Bill's said the curses of those Egyptians are nasty."

Everyone agreed it would be better to recruit backup to explore their find. It was also mentioned that certain individuals would be very cross if they weren't around for the discovery. Remus, Sirius, and Harry set up some basic wards that would last a few days to keep people from randomly duplicating their lucky discovery. A quick repair charm on the wheels of Harry's quad, and they set off back to base. With this exciting discovery, no one was in the mood to keep riding the dunes.

* * *

Later in the evening, they had managed to gather everyone who was free from work or commitments at the time into a private room at the inn arranged like a conference room. They sat around a table where refreshments were placed. From the Weasley family was Ron, Ginny, George, Fred, Bill, and Arthur. Harry and Hermione represented the Potter family, while Hermione's parents, Dan and Emma, were seated next to them. Luna and her dad were in attendance. Remus and Tonks showed up for the Lupins. Sirius and Hestia Black were present.

Many of their school friends were going to be showing up throughout the next two weeks and stay a few days during vacation, depending on family responsibilities and availability. They were unlucky to not be there for the discovery of a (probably) previously unknown pyramid; though they could join in later on the excitement.

Standing up first was Remus, who was the most responsible adult present at the time of the find to lay out what they'd found while riding their quads. After explaining how they found the pyramid, Remus continued, "After determining that it was likely an unknown pyramid we stumbled across, we set up some wards to keep anyone from stumbling across the find while we organize. We're all very excited to explore it, but at the same time caution must be a top priority. There's a reason that Curse Breaking is such a lucrative, yet dangerous, profession. Bill, if you would please?"

Bill nodded while standing up. "First I'd like to give a few highlights on the background of Curse Breaking for those who don't know. The job itself can be split into two very broad types. The first is the one that most everyone thinks of: namely a Goblin trained Curse Breaker who works in teams busting open ancient tombs in order to gain the riches within."

"Is most of that grave robbing being done in Egypt, with the pyramids?" Hermione interrupts. "You didn't specify." She half states, half questions.

Bill doesn't seem bothered by the question. "Good question, the answer is that there is a lot of ancient tombs in Egypt, but there are also many other parts of the world that have a large amount of tombs. The way it was explained to me is it depends on the ego of the rulers in whichever country whether there are lots of tombs to rob."

Bill pauses for a moment to take a sip of his drink. "Say what you will about the purebloods here in England, but there is one thing they care about more than their ego. Family. Lineage." Pausing a moment for that to sink in, Bill continued, "Except for dark lords like You-Know-Who, maybe, you won't see any British wizard taking all their gold and items of great expense with them into the grave. They'd rather leave those to the family to continue on their legacy."

"But those Egyptian Wizard-Kings, for example, actually thought they were some kind of divinity." Bill continued. "That kind of ego leads to the "I'd rather burn it to the ground or bury it with me than let anyone else have it" mind set. And if they are going to make sure no one else can have it, it needs to be protected with curses. Horrible, insidious, deadly, subtle, and obscure curses. So it's important for a curse breaking team to work well together to be able to analyze every bit of ground, wall, ceiling, and even the air in a tomb to prevent curses from being triggered."

"So what you're saying is that ancient tomb raiding is a job for a crew that is knowledgeable. That they must trust each other, and it's not a quick or easy thing to do?"

Bill nodded gravely. "Exactly. And while I'm flattered at your trust in me on this subject, the fact of the matter is that I'd only just completed my Journeyman's when I was fired. A Masters would be at least 4 years, and that's if you're one of Gringotts hotshots that are fast tracked through the program. I've managed to get hired on to do scut work, off the books so to speak, for a little pay and a chance to get my Masters, but I've only been doing that for two years. I've probably got another six or seven years at the rate I'm going. And lastly, I'm still bound by contract for the next 42 years to not work for any competitor of Gringotts in this field. By the wording of my contract that means anyone raiding ancient tombs. Which applies here. So even if I was good enough to head a team, I can't do to my contract."

"But, that would mean you can't work for forty years if you quit or got fired. That's unfair!" Ginny exclaimed, outraged on behalf of her oldest brother.

"Thanks Gin." Bill said with a smile for his sister being on his side. "But that's where the other side of curse breaking comes in. Because of treaties between Wizards and Goblins, the Goblins can't deploy Curse Breakers to get into living Wizard's property. So the other employer in the profession's monopoly is the Ministry. They have teams of Curse Breakers with the DMLE for the express purposes of breaking down wards and protections on Wizard homes, if they need to chase a criminal. There are also Curse Breakers employed by the office of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts."

Everyone at the table looked over at Arthur in astonishment. No one had thought the mild mannered man was in the same profession as his long haired "rebel" son.

Arthur cleared his throat, smiling at his smirking eldest son. "Yes, while we are in the same profession, there is quite the difference between the degree of what wizards in Britain do in order to bait Muggles, and those egotist Wizard Kings you were talking about. I'm afraid the quality of my training is sadly lacking for this." He humbly finished.

Bill nodded at his dad. "Hey, dad inspired me to be a Curse Breaker in the first place. Before he became head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts he did a lot of work on cursed items. His stories when we were younger made me want to go into the same field, but I had to one up the old man. Those same stories were why mum was so against me being hired by Gringotts. She knew it was at least ten times more dangerous than what dad used to do."

Harry spoke up at this time. "So what you're saying is that in order to explore and make sure we do this safely, we need to hire a Gringotts team to clear it?"

Bill nodded affirmatively. "Pretty much. At least if you want to do it as safely as possible and not have people die."

"Bill, you haven't mentioned one particular thing yet." Emma interjected. "How much is this likely to cost us to hire the team?"

"Well, that is going to be a point of negotiation. And Goblins are hard bargainers. So you'd have to work for it. If you're not careful and take their first deal, you'll basically be handing everything over to them on a platter. Goblins hold scrupulously to the letter of the agreement. They won't try to break their word, but if you're not careful of what you agree to, you could very well sell your firstborn to them without realizing it. I'd suggest getting a lawyer who is used to dealing with Goblins, and make sure through oaths and contracts they are competent and on your side during negotiations."

"I've heard a story that some Goblins used a tactic where they claimed they had a treaty with the Ministry that gives them jurisdiction over all tombs. Absolute rubbish, that. But the fool who was negotiating either actually believed them or he got paid by someone on the sly to "believe" them. He gave the Goblins the information right then. Word was his partners killed him later that week for losing them so much money. Then the partners got in a battle with the Goblins at the tomb itself, and caused a large explosion which destroyed most of the magical items and scrolls in the tomb. All that was left was some liquid gold that gave the Goblins little profit when they dug everything out."

"Another tactic I've heard that Goblins use is claiming that according to their "culture", the owner of a Goblin made artifact is the family of the craftsman who made it. Another load of rubbish. If that were actually part of their culture, Goblins wouldn't be raiding Wizard's tombs, now would they? They would also put that little stipulation into sales contracts. I'm sure they try, but most Wizards who have enough gold to buy Goblin goods know better than to sign those kinds of contracts. I've heard that one dumb heir actually believed them and told the Goblins they could take all Goblin made items from their vault. I guess he was trying to endear himself with the Goblins, or something. So what did the Goblins do? They cleaned him out of every galleon, sickle, and knut. See, Goblin's make the currency, so that's a Goblin made item. They just did what he said. The letter of the contract."

After a bit more discussion, everyone agreed to a number of things. First they'd all take an oath so no one could disclose any information about the tomb they'd found to anyone outside of their group until they had a majority agree to passing the information. Second, they would hire a lawyer to open negotiations with the Goblins to ensure the job would be done by a fixed price pooled by everyone there. When they mentioned loyalty oaths so no one would backstab anyone for gold, Ron decided now was the time to introduce his guild to everyone.

So Ron interrupted the debate and pulled out his guild charter and stone from his inventory. He explained what his guild was, and the benefits of the guild, the quest system, and the guild store. He suggested they all join the guild; it would prevent any problems amongst them or any future people they bring in from backstabbing.

After a bit of silence there was a great cacophony of questions.

"Where did you get such a thing a thing?"

"How could you know it was safe?"

"Why didn't you bring it to us?"

"How do you expect us to join this guild with a 13 year old in charge?"

'Sigh, this is a headache. Maybe I shouldn't have brought this up now, but done it on a one on one basis with only the younger people. Adults always think kids can't be trusted on their own. For the most part, they're right, but this isn't one of those cases, dammit.' Ron lamented to himself at his impulsiveness that led him to this mess.

When everyone finally got their impulse to yell at Ron out of their system so he could answer them, Ron spoke. "Listen, I know you lot have a lot of questions-"

"Darn right we do!" Sirius interrupted.

"But I can't answer them right now. I can tell-"

"Why not?!" Demanded Dan Granger.

Ron sighed at the constant interruptions. After glaring at all the adults for a few seconds, he continued. "This will go a lot quicker if you all shut up." When it looked like someone would tell him off for telling them to shut up, Ron loudly continued. "Before you tell me off for telling you to shut up, I'd like to point out that it's also considered rude to interrupt someone, which you have done, so save your breath."

Now that it looked like Ron could continue, "I can't explain things because it pertains to guild business. If you look again at the charter rules, you'll see those in the guild, currently consisting of just me, are compelled by magic to not be able to talk about guild business to those outside the guild. That would be you lot. I can say that everything works like I've explained. It's not some trick. I would be willing to take a magical oath to attest to that, if it would make you feel better. But until you join the guild, no further information will be shareable."

After Ron gave his oath, the adults in the room moved to one side of the room and put up silencing charms to discuss the issue of the guild and whether they would join or not.

As the youths in the room discussed the issue as well, Ginny, Luna, Harry, and Hermione came to the conclusion that the guild store is where Ron got his "mysterious potion" that gave them the ability to learn the clone technique.

All of the kids in the room seemed ready to join the guild right then, and were not quite sure exactly why the adults didn't just join and let them join as well.

When the silencing wards came down, Arthur had been elected spokesman for the group. Looking a little reluctant, and put upon, he stated, "Ron, we've decided we'll join the guild. But then you'll have to hand over the leader position to whoever we elect. Okay, son?"

"No." Ron flatly stated, crossing his arms and glaring at the adults. "I know you all think I'm too young to be in charge, and some of you don't like the idea of someone younger than you telling you what to do, I get it. But this is my guild." Ron points emphatically at the charter. "I made the rules so everyone gets to do their own thing. There's ways to make sure we get along and don't fight. And the guild leader doesn't even have to be involved in the running of the guild, or have the power to force you to do what you don't want to do. So, no, I won't be giving up the guild leader position."

Ron could hear Bill's muttered, "Told it wouldn't work."

"Fine." Sighed Dan. "At least he knows not to try to boss everyone around."

Despite the adults still looking a little reluctant, everyone queued up, placing a drop of blood on the charter stone one by one.

After everyone had signed up, Ron gave them a crash course to the guild interface menu, which worked almost exactly like his system menu.

"And that's the quest menu, where you can set up goals for yourself, and get guild points for accomplishing them. You could set up a quest to pick your nose 20 times a day for a week, and you'd get guild points. You wouldn't get much, because it doesn't require much effort to pick your nose. That's how it seems to work. Effort put in, reward output." Ron lectured the group.

"And the final thing I'd like to point out at this time is the guild store. Right now we only have three items available. The first is a potion that will, if the drinker is a muggle or a squib, grant the person the ability to grow a magical core and use magic."

A loud squee from Hermione and her mother interrupt Ron's spiel, followed by babbling at how excited they are that they/her parents get to do magic now. 'Squee indeed.' Thought Ron, chuckling to himself. 'I'll deny it to the end of my living days that I squeed a bit myself when it really hit me I get to do magic.'

"Second is a potion to give someone something called a ninja bloodline, the Uzumaki bloodline specifically. There are other bloodlines, but they are not available just now. Warning now, the potion hurts a lot. You'll probably want to get someone to keep you enervated until the potion runs to completion, or it'll be wasted. The bloodline is necessary for the third thing, which is a technique called Shadow Clones."

Ron continued to describe what the bloodline would do for their physique. When he mentioned an increased affinity for runes/seals, Hermione looked on the verge of letting out another squee of joy, but barely contained herself.

Fred and George, on the other hand, seemed to let out something of a squeak themselves on hearing what the Shadow Clones would let them do. Something along the lines of alibis, and finally getting to try brewing some volatile potions in a safe manner.

"Right now, that's all we've got unlocked in the guild store. As we complete more quests, points to unlock more items will accumulate, and give us better items. I already used up some points I'd accumulated to unlock these items so everyone could benefit quickly. Unfortunately, I don't have any more points to buy these items for you." Ron stated. 'And I wouldn't if I could, after you all tried to force me to give up being the leader of my guild.' Ron thought somewhat spitefully. "And the new rules I put into play pretty much prevent me from doing so. That way no one can be forced to provide guild benefits for anyone else through fair means or foul."

"If you browse through the locked goods in the store you'll notice a number of different items that can be unlocked for a price that's anywhere from 10 to 1000 times more expensive than just purchasing it would be. But paying that price unlocks it for everyone in the guild to be able to purchase, which under the rules I made net you some points back as a reward for sacrificing for the guild. There are other ninja bloodlines, if you're interested. And something I've found called cultivation techniques."

Ron explains about cultivation techniques to the group. 'Am I going be the instigator to founding a cultivation sect? Bwahaha!' Ron cackled to himself. 'And by the time they all earn enough points for their techniques I'll be so far ahead, it'll be hard for anyone to catch up to me. Just because I don't want to leave anyone behind doesn't mean I don't like the feeling of being head of the pack.' Ron was honest enough to admit to himself. 'Of course everything is set up for individual results. If I slack off just because I'm in the lead, tortoises will start coming out of the woodwork.'

After explanations were done, Arthur, Bill, and Ron went to find Molly, leaving everyone in the room to talk. Bill took over running the inn, letting Arthur and Ron to explain everything to Molly, get her signed up to the guild, and inducted into the secrecy contract for the tomb raiding they planned. Molly took it quite well. She had been changing a lot in the past two years, and she didn't even yell about it, despite her misgivings.

* * *

The rest of the summer passed quickly. While their summer fun continued, the roster of the guild grew as classmates, friends, and family of the current guild joined them in their Egypt centered vacation.

The original Tomb Raider Group (TRG) decided they would keep their deal and negotiations with Gringotts from becoming a general guild matter. They put in the capital, they get the reward based on contributions was the only fair system. Because of their negotiations they decided to stay the whole summer in Egypt, at least until the contract was signed and ready for the Curse Breakers to get started on the work.

One of the things Ron hadn't mentioned to anyone about his being the guild leader is that he'd included a special function of being the guild leader. He could track what the members were doing for quests, their completion rates, how many points they earned, and what they spent them on. He didn't put this function in for any nefarious reasons; it was simply a type of stat counter he was interested in. Some of the discussions he'd read online had put it in mind to record this information. Namely the idea of having a stat counter for his life would be a fun thing. Like finding out just how many tons of waste did one expel in their life, distance traveled, and the like.

The results of this counter of guild activity was that he noticed that while everyone seemed to be putting in a decent amount of work to earn points, no one was anywhere close to putting in as much effort into grinding out points as he did. Even before he'd gotten his clones, he was putting in much more effort than anyone else.

After thinking about the reason why that was, Ron came to the conclusion that it was a matter of mindset. In his past life there were so many stories he'd read where there was some big bad villain that the people faced. After much effort they'd defeated him, ensuring peace could reign. They would relax, enjoying the fruit of their efforts. Then an even stronger Big Bad would come around, and they would have to play a desperate game of catch up.

Voldemort was defeated, and everyone was settling into a peace routine, except for Ron. He hadn't actively thought about it before, but he had been subconsciously worried about this kind of thing. After Goku had defeated Piccolo and gotten married, he basically kept pace with Piccolo's development, content to just coast along. And then Radditz had shown up and kicked off the arms race that was Dragon Ball Z.

So because of the vast amounts of media Ron consumed in his past life, he figured if there was going to be something coming down the pipeline, he'd better be ready.


	15. Chapter 15

Hogwarts Castle late at night on the evening of the first of September was dark and deserted. Everyone was stuffed full from the opening feast, and tired from a day on the train. Except for Ron. He was making his way through the castle, under stealth spells, with Spartacus as his backup.

They were the Standard Stealth Spells (SSS); masking spells to hide Ron from sight, scent, and sound. 'Knowing the silliness of wizards the term should all be combined, so it would be known as the SSSSSS spells. Then you can tell your Hit Wizard team "Time to cast our SSSSSSspells." Of course knowing the British fear of Parseltongue, maybe they just didn't want anyone to start hissing at each other. Silly bludgers.'

Ron paused at the exit to the castle, scanning his surroundings once more to make sure no one was around to catch him out after curfew. Seeing no late night wandering professors, Ron exited the castle and made his way to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Pausing at the tree line, Ron once again admired the night vision goggles he'd manage to craft with Runes that looked like aviator sunglasses. Everything looked as clear as daytime. Peering through the trees he noticed the additional function was working properly as he saw various critters outlined with a light pink as they flitted around the forest at night. The pink outline contrasting from the greens and browns of the forest made them stand out in his vision.

Seeing that the enhanced Critter Vision worked, and would spot any acromanutala as they creeped through the forest, Ron made his final preparations for this expedition.

"Spartacus." Ron quietly stated.

Spartacus appeared next to Ron, also wearing a pair of the night and critter vision glasses. "Yes, Sir Ron?"

"You have all the capture totems on hand, and farming trunks prepared and ready for our new guests?" Ron questioned.

Nodding in affirmation, Spartacus replied, "Yes sir. Dawn and Dahlia are standing by at the trunks to make sure containment is not a problem. I've got all the capture totems in a trunk with me, ready for the final ingredient."

"The totems power supply, and portkey bullets?"

"Power supply at full, sir. Totems have a full complement of portkey bullets, and the power capacity will allow them to conjure two full refills. All told they should be able to capture up to 60 targets each, provided they hit the target, sir." Spartacus confirmed.

"Good. I'm going to conjure my clones now, and we'll move out. Be on standby in case I need immediate extraction." Ron ordered.

"As you say, sir. I don't know why you don't just let me pop one of them to the trunk." Spartacus complained.

Ron paused for a moment. Why didn't he just do that? He could be in bed already, peacefully asleep.

Shaking his head to get those lazy thoughts out of his head, he replied to both Spartacus' words, and his own doubts. "As easy as that would be for you to do, Spartacus, I'm striving to be a more active Wizard. No matter how good the training, there's a difference between simulation and actual combat. I'm not looking to just live a life of comfort and ease. It'll be necessary to put myself in dangerous situations, and it's better to get practice at doing it now, rather than freezing up when danger comes to me in a surprising manner."

Shaking his head doubtfully, Spartacus simply murmured, "As you say, sir."

Grinning at Spartacus's standard reply when he thought Ron was being a silly wizard, Ron summoned his clones. He was up to eight clones now, so they split into squads of three as they entered the forest, wands at the ready.

Ron felt tense as he and two clones stalked through to forest to catch some spiders. He'd been training for months in his mini-RoR to anticipate the dodging moves of the arachnids. Now to see how well the training went.

About thirty minutes in, and Ron had still not spotted his prey, he received the memories of one of his clones. One of his three clone teams had run into a pair of acromantulas first. They'd done a good job of bracketing the spiders in spells so they couldn't dodge properly. After incapacitating the two spiders, one of the clones had released, letting Ron get the memories so he knew to meet up with the team.

Shifting directions to meet up with the successful capture team, Ron and his two clones soon arrived at the location. Without a word the two clones with Ron move to form a defensive perimeter with the other two clones while Ron summoned up a clone to replace the one that released earlier.

Calling for Spartacus, Ron began extracting several vials of blood from the two acromantulas while Spartacus began digging a hole in the ground of around four feet deep. Once he accomplished that, he pulled out a trunk and levitated out from the trunk a large totem pole, approximately 20 feet in height, and placed it in the hole, while ensuring it had a stable base to keep it upright.

The capture totem pole had holes all around the pole, every four feet of height. Once the totems were keyed to the blood of an acromantula, if one of the spiders approached within range, it would automatically fire out a projectile portkey that upon landing on the spider would portkey the spider to a capture trunk.

Before the end of the last school year Ron had the Room of Requirement specially make a trunk for him with a large enough pocket dimension to grow a forest to house the acromantulas, and specially warded so they couldn't escape. His house elves will ensure the spiders are fed and their population kept under control. Spartacus, Dahlia, and Dawn, while growing their family, will have work farming the silk and growing any magical plants in his greenhouse trunks. 'Should they be called greentrunks if they are trunks and not houses?'

Ron saw that Spartacus was done erecting the totem, so he applied some acromantula blood to it. It took a moment while glowing softly the same green color of the spiders. Once the totem was attuned, it shot out two portkeys, hitting the unconscious spiders, which vanished immediately.

Ron gave the signal to Spartacus to check with his wives. They were currently waiting at the small plot of land he'd had Spartacus purchase on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, which is where they were keeping all his greentrunks and capture farms.

After tonight, Ron and his elves would work on planting the capture totems. They would create a boundary around the acromantulas territory first so that no spiders could escape. Then they would tighten the noose of totems, so to speak, until they'd captured them all. No sense leaving man eating spiders next to a school of kids. And also there was no sense in destroying a resource that can be used to build up his estate.

Spartacus gave Ron the okay sign, signaling that the acromantulas arrived with no problems. Dawn and Dahlia had everything under control on their end.

They shifted locations, to post another capture totem. Ron planned to post 10 of them tonight to get started. Ron wanted them within range of each other, to ensure no acromantulas escaped, so it only took another hour before he was back in his room, diving into bed.

* * *

Throughout the following two months Ron noticed the population of the guild slowly growing. They had 3/4th of the second and third years enlisted. The final 1/4th was split in half. One half seemed to want to join their large group of friends, but have been kept back by family concerns. The final half was not interested at all, they still seemed to cling to the old Voldemort inspired blood purity nonsense that their parents indoctrinated them in.

Ron, Ginny, Luna, Harry, Hermione, Fred, and George made up the council at school for deciding who to invite to the guild. They had invited about half of the 4th and 5th years, but only one third of the 6th and 7th years so far. Many of the older students were not as receptive to the changes brought about in the wizarding world due to the actions of the Potters and Blacks. They'd already gotten stuck in their prejudice, so to speak.

Ron was hoping with the number of upper years that they had enlisted into the guild, there would be more support and impetus to overcome old attitudes.

They were still getting to know the first years. They'd agreed to at least wait until after the Halloween feast before starting to invite first years. Ron had proposed that when they did settle on which of the first years to invite in, especially the muggleborn, they would be careful to probe them about their parent's attitude towards magic and their society.

The parents that were supportive would get the chance to join the guild and work towards getting rewards like magic for themselves.

The parents that seemed afraid of magic or the changes in society would have to be interviewed to see why they feared magic or the changes in society. Their attitudes would determine if they received the chance to join the guild.

Thinking about the numbers of the guild increasing, Ron opened up his guild leader interface. He was extremely pleased. With the numbers rising above 100 already, he'd gotten the first tier reward, a permanent 5% discount to his store purchases. He would get an additional 5% for every power of ten up to 25% at 1,000,000 guild members.

And that was just the reward for guild member numbers. There were other various rewards for him on other things, like number of guild members at a certain magic or strength level. Number of guild members proficient in professions purchased from the guild store. Number of items or techniques unlocked in the guild store, etc.

Ron naturally hadn't told anyone about the reward tiers he would get for various guild related things while he was the guild leader. That would just lead to more arguing and jealousy from others when they think what they could get, or how they deserved the position more than a 13 year old boy.

To lessen the risk of that happening, he made sure there was no information available to anyone in the guild about what he would get out of being the leader. He made it so he didn't lord his position over anyone, and that there didn't even need to be leaders to run the guild. Everyone did their own thing.

Even with the oaths ensuring no backstabbing, there's nothing to stop someone from leaving the guild temporarily to set up a plot to have him assassinated, then rejoin the guild, hoping to attain the vaunted position.

This way everyone is distracted by the shiny new toys. Ron's plan was to make it this way so that by the time there is someone who joins the guild that is that greedy, there's nothing they could do to overthrow him. By that time Ron would have had enough time to become powerful enough, and have enough defenses and guards; no one would be able to take him down.

The criteria he and the others set for invitation to the guild were another layer of defense for himself. If he just recklessly sought to invite everyone to the guild, he would invite unstable elements to the newly made association. So Ron and the others planned to invite only like minded individuals at first.

This practice of inviting like minded and honorable people first would lead to a number of things. First, with decent people of the same attitude invited, there would be less chance likely for conflict.

Second, by the time they got to the point of inviting questionable people to join, if they ever did, the first groups of people would have already solidified the general attitude of the guild society. Trying to change it at that point would be very difficult.

Lastly the late comers who would want to shake things up so they could be in charge would be weaker than everyone else; due to the lesser amount of time they'd spent accumulating guild points and techniques.

There was one final reason Ron set his guild up the way he did.

Paperwork.

He wasn't just talking about filling out forms. No, if he was just worried about filing forms he'd simply have a shadow clone do it.

Paperwork is the physical manifestation of the bane of leaders everywhere.

The bane of leaders everywhere is the people they lead. Or more accurately, the conflicts between the people they lead.

Whenever people live and interact, there are "issues".

Johnny next door plays his music too loud at 2 a.m. "He won't listen to me, but you're our beloved leader, surely you can see my horrible plight, and save me from it! He'll listen to you!" And Johnny next door will. For only three nights.

"My next door neighbor keeps having friends over, and they park everywhere, even in my driveway. Won't you, our beloved leader, go give them a stern talking to so I don't have to do it myself! You can solve my problems!"

Paperwork is the physical manifestation of all the bullshit things a leader has to do to keep the peace between everyone that looks to him for leadership. And a leader can't just fob it off on some random flunky. He has to show he **cares**. He has to invest time, energy, and emotion into showing the people that he leads that he does have time for them. That they matter. And that their problems are his problems.

And frankly, Ron ain't got time for that.

So it's good to get it cemented in his guild members heads now. "Your guild leader is a 13 year old boy, it's better to figure it out for yourself." And hopefully that "figure it out yourself" will stick with everyone the rest of Ron's life.

So he never has to do the Paperwork.

* * *

Ron was sitting on a couch in the Ravenclaw common room, reading Dune to pass the time while he waited on a November day.

A pair of hands covered his eyes, while a giggling voice by his ear told him to "Guess who!"

"The moon rabbit." Ron guesses.

"No. Guess again." The voice giggles.

"Hmm, if it's not the rabbit of Chang'e, could it be Cerridwen herself?"

"No. Last try."

"Hmm, gonna need a pot of knowledge to answer this question. Could it possibly be the lovely Luna?" Ron guessed.

"Bingo!" Luna sing songed whiled tossing herself over the back of the couch to land upside down on it while Ron saw Ginny laughing off to the side.

After chatting a bit, Ginny told Ron that they came to get him because there was news about the Tomb Raiding Group (TRG), and they were meeting in some classroom to discuss it. Getting up to follow them, Ron put away his book.

When they arrived, they saw Harry and Hermione already there; they were only waiting on Fred and George who arrived a few minutes later. Taking the appropriate precautions, they cast anti-eavesdropping spells.

Once the spells were in place Harry went on to tell them that the TRG had finalized the negotiations with Gringotts and was going to sign the contract shortly. They would begin work the first of December, and depending on how difficult the job was they may be done by the next summer.

Contained in the letter that the Potters received was a long rambling account of how the negotiations went, giving a blow by blow narration of the ups and downs, back and forth. As far as Ron could tell, it basically boiled down to the Goblins wanted everything, the TRG wanted to give them nothing, and they met somewhere in the middle for a lump sum and small percentage of magical goods. The TRG fought long and hard because there was no way they were going to give the rights to any scrolls or grimoire to the goblins, and they wanted the novelty of owning a pyramid, so negotiating the property rights to the structure was right out the window.

Afterwards everyone laughed about it for a while and made jokes about turning it into a water park or something equally ludicrous.

When they started breaking up the meeting, Ron stayed behind with Harry to ask him a question that he'd been wondering for a while.

"So, what did you guys ever do with the basilisk?"

Harry looked nonplussed for a moment. "Huh. We never did anything with it. I mean, we got the diary from Malfoy, so no one could get into the chamber, and it just never felt like a priority to hunt it down."

Ron nodded in agreement. "I'd imagine after hearing how lucky you were to survive it the first time no one was especially eager to go right back into death's jaws."

Harry laughed dryly. "Just the opposite, in fact. I bet if I said anything about it I'd get hexed seven ways to Sunday."

After the laughter died down, Ron said, "You know, if you search in the store you'll find you can purchase language packs. I looked, and you can buy a parseltongue language pack." At Harry's wide eyed look, Ron nodded. "Yeah, it might not be as secure anymore with more than just you speaking the snake tongue. And I reeeeally want to explore the Chamber of Secrets. But there's no way I'm doing it alone, especially if that ruddy great snake is still down there."

At Harry's hesitant look, Ron went on, "I realize you can't commit to anything without including your significant other." Harry nodded in emphatic agreement. "It doesn't have to be anytime soon, and we can definitely get more back up. We can really get super prepared for this too. If the books don't tell us how to effectively fight a basilisk, we can try lots of stuff. Talking to it without Riddle around to see if it'll listen to reason. Set up mirrors so it kills itself. Conjured roosters, and especially real ones. High powered harpoon guns. Elephant guns. Giant traps to keep it immobilized. I mean, there's a lot we can try out." Ron finished enthusiastically.

After laughing a bit at Ron's craziness, Harry promised to bring it up with Hermione. Once they'd decided if and when they'd want to take care of it, they'd call a meeting.

With that decided, they exited the room, only to come face to face with three expectant females. By their expressions, they demanded to know what was going on. Ron looked over to Harry to see if he had any idea on how to slither out of this one. By his awkward look he didn't have any idea either.

"We were just discussing how to find the Chamber of Secrets." Blurted Harry when the pressure was too much to take. Hermione didn't look any happier now that she knew what Ron and Harry had talked about. Ginny and Luna on the other hand looked like they thought it would be an adventure.

'Great, thanks for the backup.' Ron sarcastically thought. 'Don't you know you're supposed to deny, distract, and run?'

"Let's let those two talk about that for now." Ron said to Ginny and Luna. "I'm sure we'll set up a meeting to discuss it with everyone later, which is what we planned to do anyway." Ginny was looking like she didn't want to let it go, so Ron continued, "The last time the chamber was opened in the 40s, several students were petrified, and one actually died. So it's something that's dangerous and shouldn't be done willy nilly." Ron let them know the danger to curtail them from trying to be intrepid explorers on their own. It worked, if the fear on their faces were any measure.

Just as they were about to go their separate ways, Ron suddenly thought of something, and his mouth immediately connected before he could engage his filter. "Hey, Hermione. If one reflection lessens the deadly gaze of a basilisk to just petrifying, what if the image is bounced off multiple mirrors before it hits the eyes?"

Ron only realized he'd done something stupid by talking about the basilisk when his arms started hurting from Ginny and Luna clutching them in death grips at the thought of accidently blundering into a basilisk. 'Or maybe it's a good thing to give them such a fright. They should definitely stay away now.'

Looking thoughtful at the question, Hermione started musing, "Well, we don't really know the arithmancy behind what's going on in the basilisk glare. We don't even know if the reflection halves the power, or if it's some other percentage, or if it's something else going on that alters what the result of the glare is. There's so much testing that would have to be done. And we don't know if the age of the basilisk in question affects the power of the gaze, or if it's a constant."

Harry gently interrupted her. "Why don't we go back in the classroom and you can write down all these questions. Then you can research how you'd go about measuring or answering it." Harry finished with a glare at Ron for getting Hermione in a research mood.

Ron just shrugged, not caring about Harry's glaring at all. 'Heh, you're the one that didn't deny, distract, and run, fool.' He then turned to Ginny and Luna. "Well, on to more pleasant things then. Unless you want to join Hermione in her search for more research?"

Luna decided she was interested too, so she joined Hermione. Ginny decided to show some solidarity and joined in as well, leaving Ron to his own devices.

Ron started walking back to the common room, debating about whether he should continue reading Dune, or if he had slacked enough. As he was walking, his thoughts went from Dune to the basilisk, and he starting walking with no rhythm. Then he broke into a shuffling dance. 'Walk without rhythm, and you won't attract the worm. But if you walk without rhythm, you'll never learn.' Ron laughed to himself. 'Ah, Fatboy Slim, how I've missed your music. Only about 7 more years.'

* * *

The light of a half full moon shone over the snowy land of Japan at night. Tokyo at night in the snow was quite beautiful. In one corner of the city there was a dojo dedicated to the martial art of Karate.

Ron and Spartacus popped in across the street from the empty dojo.

"And you double checked that it's empty?" Ron queried, his gaze locked on the dojo doors.

"Yes sir. The janitor left two hours ago, and no one will be here for another five hours."

"Excellent. Let's get to it."

Ron and Spartacus strolled across the street, and when they reached the doors, Ron casually unlocked the door with his wand, barely pausing as he entered the dojo.

As they entered the main training area, Spartacus pulled out a trunk. Opening the trunk, he floated out several silver colored items the size of buttons. Without further talk, Ron took half the buttons and began affixing them to the corners of the room, at the floor and ceiling.

These buttons would act as a type of recording device to make a record of everyone of all skill levels that practiced karate there. These recordings will be added to the Room of Requirement, as well as Ron's mini-RoR, so that he could have them create opponents of all skill levels to fight against.

Once they were finished installing the recording devices and hiding their appearance, Ron looked at the time.

"Taekwondo next I think, followed by Sambo, Wing Chun, Silat, and finally Muay Thai. That should get bring us up to an even dozen for the night. You're still good for that many pops bringing me along?"

"Yes sir, it's no problem, as you like to say." Spartacus replied with a grin.

Ron chuckled a little at the five foot house elf. "Okay then, if you're sure." At his nod, Ron nodded back. "So, are you interested in picking up any of these fighting styles?"

"It's hard to decide sir. With my increased elf size, I'm much larger than other house elves, but still smaller than most humans. Grappling someone who has at least a foot on you isn't wise, but being able to take down elves quickly before they can utilize their hands for magic does have advantages." Spartacus thought out loud.

"Well, who says you have to pick only one? Find what moves work well for you, and mix it all up into your own style, the first elf style." Ron suggested.

A feral grin lit up Spartacus' face. "First Elf Style. I like that idea sir. I like it a lot."

Ron grinned back in anticipation. "Let's move on to the next target."

Grabbing Ron's hand, Spartacus popped them on to the next dojo.

* * *

Because of the founding of the TRG, Christmas this year was spent in Egypt. The holiday spent spending time with family had been enjoyable. Even if Ron had been press ganged by his mother into helping out at the inn, running drinks and food out to people. A clone was a handy thing to have.

While the rest of family and friends were out on a day expedition, Ron stayed behind in his room. He had an appointment to keep. The 28th of every month was set aside for going over finances.

Dawn popped into his trunk, where he had an office setup going at the moment.

"Good afternoon sir." Dawn greeted Ron.

"Good afternoon Dawn. How are the little ones?" Ron greeted back.

"A handful sir." Dawn replied with a fond smile, thinking of her and Dahlia's children with Spartacus, Rose and Leonidas. "They are so curious and active. We can barely keep up with them." Dawn finished up while placing the ledgers she brought with her on the desk.

Chuckling a bit, Ron joined her at the desk. "That's good to hear. So, what surprises do you have for me today, Dawn?"

"Well, the first good news is that the Acromantulas finally settled down from their relocation and haven't destroyed their surroundings for the past two weeks. It seems that regular food and no Centaurs finally convinced them they were living in the land of plenty. Aragog seems to have played a part in convincing his family to just enjoy life. It seems old age has mellowed the fellow." Dawn stated.

"I'll say. Starting from nothing and carving up half the Centaur's forest range into his personal fiefdom doesn't happen by chance. It really was lucky that Dumbledore hired Hagrid on, or Aragog probably would have been "disappearing" children from Hogwarts whenever he could get away with it." Hagrid was a very nice guy to his friends, and very loyal. So loyal he'd ignore the fact that his friend is a man-eating spider that would love nothing more than to feast on all the children in the school he worked at. 'Bit of a blind spot that man has for his friends.' Ron sarcastically thought.

Dawn interrupted his thoughts. "So with the Acromantulas settled, we've actually been able to get a larger quantity of silk to sell. You'll see the totals here." She said, pointing at the ledger. Ron was happy at the steadily increasing profits.

Opening up a different ledger, Dawn continued, "And here you'll find the accounts on what you've labeled your Green Trunk Farm. It took a while for any of the plants to mature for harvest, this month is really the first harvest we've had, and the yield isn't high yet, another two cycles should see it increase to a much more fruitful yield."

Pausing for a moment for Ron to look over the numbers, she continued. "We've approached several apothecaries for the possibility of selling our goods to them. There are several we can work with, but a couple of their offers were downright insulting. Dahlia looked into them, and found that one of them is owned by the Slughorn family."

Humming thoughtfully, Ron speculated, "Perhaps having such a prominent member of their family in the potions and networking business has made them arrogant. Ignore their offer. There are plenty of others we can work with." Ron decided.

"The other one is actually owned by the Potter family." Dawn stated flatly.

"Well, that's unexpected. I doubt Harry or Hermione know about that attitude of the proprietor. Here's what we'll do. You make a copy of your memory of your encounter with the piece of dung and write up a report containing the cost of growing, the offers of the other vendors, market prices, etc. We'll bring this to Harry and Hermione's attention so they can research the matter on their end and make a decision on what to do. If there's something or someone hurting the man's business, they can probably help fix it. If he's just being arrogant because he's affiliated with the Boy-Who-Lived, or some other rot, well, it's still up to them to solve it."

Dawn indicated she would take care of it. Next they went over Ron's muggle tech investments. Everything was going good in that market. The investments were growing quickly.

With everything financial out of the way, Dawn brought up a final topic of interest. "Dahlia has been keeping track of the House Elves, sir, and she's found another group of elves that don't have family, and they wouldn't be satisfied with staying at Hogwarts or any other magic school." Dawn paused, to see how Ron would react.

Ron looked at Dawn for a moment, assessing what she was not verbalizing. "Dahlia has talked to them and finds them trustworthy?" Ron queried.

"Yes sir. There are two couples. One couple has been together for a long time at a potions ingredient farm. They haven't been allowed to join each other, and they ache for a family. The other two have worked at a kneazle breeding farm, so they understand animals. It was recently taken over after the death of the owner. Most of the elves remained to bind with the new owner, but these two wished for a different life. They spent so much time ensuring the kneazles could breed, but they never were allowed young of their own." Dawn summarized the information on the four elves.

"That's just not right, restricting when beings want to have a family." Ron muttered to himself. Raising his voice, Ron continued, "Okay Dawn, if Dahlia says they are good, I'm fine with them joining our family." Dawn smiled at Ron's trust in their word. "This seems very fortuitous. We've just gotten our ingredient and silk farms ready and now we have two couples who can take over the running of them." Ron stated, while eyeing Dawn speculatively.

Dawn blushed a little, at having their plan laid bare. "Sir, we-"

Ron interrupted, "I'm not upset in the least Dawn." He reassured her. "I like that you and Dahlia are taking the initiative. I want my family to have good lives, and I personally can't think of everything that's needed. If you ever need anything, or have good ideas to increase our family's holdings, finances, or security don't hesitate to bring it up with me." Ron smiled warmly. "And if there's ever a situation where our family can benefit from a situation, but you don't have enough time to come to me for a decision, I leave it in your, Dahlia, and Spartacus's hands to make the decision at the time."

"Thank you sir!" Dawn was a little overwhelmed at Ron's show of trust in them.

Nodding at Dawn, Ron concluded, "Why don't you, Dahlia, and Spartacus bring the new elves by after dinner so we can bring them into the family?"

"Yes sir, we will sir." Dawn agreed, before popping away with the ledgers.

* * *

Later that night Ron was waiting for the elves. Seven elves popped into his trunk, three of them were five feet tall, dressed impeccably in decent uniforms with the Uzumaki crest on their breasts, and standing proudly. The other four were only 3 foot 9 inches tall, standing hunched over in dirty pillow cases. Ron could tell they felt very skittish, and was hoping the results of the naming ceremony would give them more confidence.

Ron greeted the new elves and got to know them a little, asking after what they have done in the past, and when they join his family if they are willing to continue in the same field of work. They all answer that there is nothing better they would like.

After the previous, impromptu, naming ceremony, Ron learned his lesson. He'd set up the mini-RoR to have one central hall, and a number of side rooms the two soon to be couples could pop off to. He also decided to introduce a bit of background of the names he was gifting them.

For the male elf who worked on the ingredient farm he chose the name Johnny. Named after Johnny Appleseed, the legend of a man who traveled the Americas with nothing but the clothes on his back and the seeds he planted so everyone could eat. Johnny will be in charge with his wife Kore of the family's business in growing plants, to ensure their family will always have enough to eat and strength to protect the family.

Kore, another name for Persephone, was a goddess of vegetation. In legend, her absence from the earth to live in the underworld for half the year is what caused winter. She and her husband will ensure the family's crops are fruitful, and she herself will have her own little ones.

For the male elf who worked with animals, he chose the name James. James Herriot, a veterinarian of good humor, served in the armed forces in Britain in World War Two. He also became an author, writing of his life and experiences that uplift and bring joy to people's lives. James with his wife Dianna will be in charge of the family's animals, ensuring they are healthy and productive.

Dianna was a goddess of wild animals and woodlands, associated with Childbirth and women. Unlike the virgin goddess, Dianna and James will have children, raising them to be good elves of great standing.

After each naming ceremony was complete, the elf would grow at least a foot in height, visibly gaining confidence and being clothed in a dignified manner congruent with their namesake.

Shortly after Dianna received her name, all seven elves disappeared into their respect rooms with their mates, to carry on the task of creating a new generation.

Looking around awkwardly, Ron sung a little ditty in his mind, 'I'm all alone, there's no one here beside me. But you gotta have friends…' Before shrugging and making his way out of his trunk to give the elves space.

* * *

Ron was crouched down behind a tree trunk, trying to open up his senses, especially hearing and smell, trying to detect his opponent. The Room of Requirement simulated forest was silent at the moment.

He couldn't detect anyone. Sliding out from his cover, he swiftly and silently made his way to the next piece of cover.

Ron felt a strange sensation from his left back side. It felt like magic coming right for him. Not thinking anymore, Ron rolled out of the way of a stunner spell.

Aiming at the source of the stunner the best he could he cast what he called the shotgun, which casts 15 light bludgeon spells in a 3 foot radius. It doesn't do much more than distract the opponent with a light punch, but the distraction and ruined aim is priceless when he's still off balance and seeking to lock onto his target.

And there she is, Ginny was coming out from behind the tree she hid behind, wand already moving to cast another spell. Before she could finish casting another stunner, Ron snapped off another invention of his, the beacon.

The beacon was a very fast moving spell, barely visible, that does nothing to the target when it lands, except act as a beacon. If Ron's opponents thought to finite it, then it would be useless. But if they ignored it after realizing it did nothing, then he'd have seeker stunners flying their way in no time. The seeker stunners may lose a bit of speed and power, but they were still faster than most humans can move.

When Ginny saw the beacon spell flash her way, she aborted the stunner she was casting and ducked behind the tree again, to check for damage. After making sure nothing happened, she opened her mouth to taunt Ron, "Hey, brother, that spell did noth-"

Which is when the seeker stunners Ron cast off to the left and right of the tree Ginny was hiding behind curved around and knocked her out.

Luna, who was referee for the match on a high platform so she could see the field of battle, blew her whistle. "Winner, Ron!" She cheered.

After acknowledging the win announced by Luna, Ron summoned Ginny's wand before enervating her. He'd been surprised a time or to by revenge hexes the moment Ginny woke up, and he wasn't going to ruin this victory for himself.

"What the heck was that?!" Growled Ginny as she sat up, while Luna made her way to Ron and Ginny's position on a broom.

"I would like to know too, Ron. It was most impressive how your stunners curved mid-air like that." Luna chimed in.

"Yeah, that and how you dodged my stunner! I had you dead to rights when you suddenly rolled. I'm positive you didn't see or hear me!" Ginny complained.

"Oh, I just finally got a couple of spells I've been working on to work the other day, and I figured you'd make a great test subject, Ginny." Ron humorously bantered. At Ginny's angry glare, Ron hurriedly cleared his throat. "Uh, well, it's a two part attack. The first spell I call a beacon. See, it's designed to be really fast and hard to see. It doesn't do anything other than create a certain magical signature on the target it hits. Then I cast my seeker stunners that are stunners that have been tweaked a bit. They lose a bit of stunning power and speed, but in return they home in on the beacon signal." Ron explained.

Ginny was doing a good fish impression, mouth opening and closing without words. Luna on the other hand was beaming happily. "That's brilliant Ron. Will you teach me? Are there any counters? What other spells can you make seek the beacon?" She added.

"Sure, I'll show you the spells. Weaknesses…well if you finite the beacon instead of ignoring it, thinking it didn't do any damage, then the seekers have nothing to home in on. The stunners will eventually run out of juice from moving, so either staying away from them long enough, or blocking them is the way to go. But if all you do is evade, you give the enemy more chances to cast, so there's that." Ron went on to show Ginny and Luna the spells.

"So far the only spell I've tweaked to be a seeker is the stunner. I'll get around to doing it with other spells, but for our practice sessions I didn't want to chance casting other, more deadly spells. Even something like a piercing hex, if it's homed in on the head, and they don't expect it…yeah, it wouldn't be good." Ginny and Luna look a little sick at the visual, while agreeing with him.

"Okay, that explains the spells. Brilliant by the way, like Luna said." Ginny piped up. "But how did you know my stunner was coming?"

Ron reviewed his memory of the incident, noticing more clearly that he felt the magic coming for him. "I think it's what the occlumency book we've been studying has promised would happen. I just felt the magic coming towards me. I've never quite felt it before like that, so I guess all that practice of feeling the magic inside me is now being applied to the outside as well."

After they talked a bit more about this new sense, and how they all three could develop it more, they moved on to the next match. Luna vs. Ginny. Which is totally unfair, Ginny regularly complains, because Luna almost can't be snuck up on. Laughing again at the familiar complaints, Ron flies to the platform, and begins the match.

* * *

Ron was seated across from Luna and Ginny at the feast at the end of the year. Their third year was already over. He'd accomplished a lot this year. He had a growing family of elves. 'It doesn't seem right to call them house elves anymore.' At the age of 14 he had growing businesses of potions ingredients and Acromantula silk, as well as investments on the muggle side of things in technology; it will only grow more and more.

Ron is on track for his muggle schooling. He might even attend university at 18, after he travels for a year after graduating from Hogwarts.

There were plans this summer to explore and inventory everything from their tomb raiding.

 **[Stats]**

* * *

 **Name** : Ron Weasley

 **Age** : 14

 **Race** : Human

 **Bloodline** : Wizard/Uzumaki

 **Body Cultivation:** The Running Fool

 **Energy Cultivation:** Lightning Rod

 **Soul Cultivation:** Taconite Caravel

 **Strength:** 109

 **Dexterity:** 124

 **Constitution:** 109

 **Intelligence:** 118

 **Wisdom:** 114

 **Charisma:** 109

* * *

And he's getting pretty strong. 'And I've still got four more years of "Schooling" to go before I'm legally of age to go where ever I want. I will be prepared for whatever is out there.' Ron vowed to himself while thinking of those Bone Thieves he saw a couple years ago.


	16. Chapter 16

The meeting chamber was behind so many protection and concealment wards that no one in the group actually knew where it was located. They only ever arrived by specially sent out portkeys. At the front of the chamber sat three thrones, occupied by figures wearing black cloaks with cowls covering their visage.

"Number One. Report." The figure seated in the center commanded in deep tones, allowing his voice to echo through the chamber.

Out of the shadows to the immediate right side of the chamber stepped a tall figure cloaked in black and dark red; the figure's raised hood shadowed their face, except for two eyes, faintly glowing red.

Carefully speaking in a sepulchral tone, number one began his report. "The project is going well. As you know, six months ago the Dominguez Cartel based out of Brazil started picking up hints of our people and the site they are working on. Since then we have been successful in diverting them by using several people from the Rodrego Cartel to bust up their businesses. Hostilities have erupted between the two. In one of the battles we were even able to take out Gabriel, the one from the Dominguez who was pushing for the Cartel to investigate us. We should no longer have any problems."

"Excellent work, Number One."

"Thank you Chancellor. Furthermore, the acquisition of goods has shown a marked increase, so our profit margin should be increased by 20% this coming quarter." Number One finished his report, stepping back into the shadows.

"Good. Number Two, report."

Next in line, a squat male figure in midnight black robes with blood red stitching stepped out of the shadows, his cowl covering his features. Speaking in a harsh and grating whisper that carried to all corners of the room, Number Two began. "There are no…personnel issues to report at this time." He paused a few beats too long. "The…artifact…dug up in Idaho has not responded to any…attempts to probe its secrets."

Nodding in appreciation the cloaked figure sitting in the center of the three, known as The Chancellor, spoke up, "Sometimes it takes years to analyze these artifacts. Don't get discouraged, but don't let your people become complacent just because nothing has worked so far."

"Yes, Chancellor. I shall…encourage their full effort." Number Two then stepped back into his shadows.

"Excellent. Number Three could not make it at this time. She is at a delicate point in negotiations with the Ogun. Number Four, report." The Chancellor moved the reporting on.

A towering figure, at least seven feet tall, stepped forward from the shadows. He was cloaked in dark blood red robes, with black accents. His booming voice echoed in the chamber. "Pietro has taken the Brothers and Sisters of my area to prepare. They had been getting too complacent in their comfortable, predictable lives. I shall be joining them after the meeting is over, when we shall begin the revel. Other than that, there are still no leads on where _it_ is. After the revel, their blood will sing, and they will go back to the search with renewed vigor." Number Four concluded firmly.

"Yes, quite." The Chancellor dryly answered. "A dull mind and lack of enthusiasm would ensure they miss certain clues they would otherwise notice. Carry on." The towering figure of Number Four stepped back into the shadows. "Number Five, report." The Chancellor intoned solemnly.

A tall woman, cloaked head to toe in a tight black cloak stepped forward. Speaking in an emotionless, ice cold manner, "There are four leads to the bridge we are following up on. None seem more likely to pan out than the other dead ends. If we gain any more clues, we will follow up on them, as per usual."

Number Five spoke so flatly, without the usual intonations a person used to indicate they had finished their sentence, that even the Chancellor was caught unprepared, thinking she had something further to say. Coughing to break the awkwardness, the Chancellor thanked Number Five and she stepped back into the shadows.

"Number Six, report."

Out of the shadows to the left delicately stepped out a short slender figure dressed in shades of pink, wearing an opaque veil that hid her face. In dulcet tones, she began reporting in.

'There's always one of these damn types in every group, thinks they are cute and special by bucking tradition. A black cloak is tradition. Adding blood red to the black is tradition. Pink is not tradition, and it's a farce on every cult member in good standing. But of course there's always that one who thinks they are cleverly hiding just how dangerous they are by dressing in light colors, like pink. Damn middle grader syndrome.' The Chancellor grumpily thought to himself.

"As you know, the Goblins of Gringotts, British Branch, had conducted house keeping a couple of years ago. Unfortunately this led to our eyes and ears being blinded and silenced. We've only recently acquired more little birdies to pass news for us. The most important piece of news they bring is that there has been a new pyramid tomb found. It may be possible that this is what we seek."

After the murmurs from the shadows died down, the Chancellor impatiently gestured for Number Six to get on with it.

Delicately nodding her head, Six continued, "The contract was already signed, and curse breaking began back in December. We were unable to gain more information directly, because of the oaths in the contracts. However, by keeping an eye on the coming and goings of the Curse Breaking teams, we have narrowed down the location to one of three possible sites. Our men will work hard to ensure we are able to infiltrate the group, but there is only an estimated one month left. If we make no progress in the infiltration, we'll have to do it the hard way, by combing the desert."

"Be sure that you do." The Chancellor sternly rebuked. It wasn't that the Chancellor thought Number Six was incompetent. Six would never have gotten or kept the position if that was the case. It's just that the Chancellor was a traditional kind of person. It was the fact that Number Six liked to flaunt that she didn't follow tradition but still got excellent results that rankled in the Chancellor's mind. Serenely nodding, Number Six stepped back, the shadows swallowing the shades of pink she dressed up in.

"Number Seven, report."

Out of the shadows to the left of where Number Six was, stepped a man cloaked in furs that were black as the shadows he stepped out of. His voice was sharp as a blade, cutting through the silence. "As always, the progress of exploration is slowed due to the seasons. During the storm months, which we are approaching now, the danger rises to untenable conditions. Even one of us, if lost alone on the ice shelves during a storm, can use up all our magic and perish just trying to stay warm."

"There's no need to justify yourself here due to the dangers of the Antarctic. When the founders set us on this course, they knew we were in it for the long haul. Just keep casualties to a minimum, and keep pushing the boundaries." The Chancellor intoned.

"Yes, Chancellor." Number Seven replied, before stepping back into the shadows.

"Next, we have new personnel to assign to each of you." Giving a nod to the black clad figure sitting to the Chancellors left. The indicated figure lifted their wand, and sent the information files floating to each of the Numbers in the Shadows. "Remember that our trusted members are a resource, and that resource is not inexhaustible. Train the new ones well, and they shall serve for years to come."

A chorus of assents came from each of the Numbers in the Shadows.

"And finally, your budgets and requests have been processed and approved in almost all cases." The Chancellor nodded to the figure on the seat to his right.

That figure raised their wand and sent the shrunken trunks to each of the Numbers in Shadows.

The Chancellor stood, followed by the two seated to either side of him. "That concludes this meeting. Remember: The Darkness will rise."

"And take its rightful place." Came the reply from each of the Numbers in the Shadows and the Chancellor's two counselors.

"You may depart."

* * *

Sitting in a large manor dining room are two wizards and one witch, chatting over breakfast. The double doors at the front of the room open, admitting a witch clad in shades of pink with a veil over her features.

The conversation at the breakfast table pauses. They all three know how much each of the meetings wears on her. As the pink clad Number Six joins her three companions at the breakfast table, the silence is broken by the blond haired witch.

"How is it Kathryn?"

Removing the veil from her face, Number Six, otherwise known as Kathryn, levelly looks at the other witch for a moment. Then her face scrunches up in anger, and she lets out a loud scream. "Arrgh, those stuck in the mud, arrogant, posers!" The brown haired witch started twisting her veil in her hands, wishing it was the necks of those arrogant tosspots.

The tall brown haired wizard cracked a small smile as he said, "Come on, Kitty, tell us how you really feel."

Kathryn paused her wringing of the inoffensive head garb. Staring him in the eye, she baldly stated, "Okay. I feel like hexing someone. Thanks for volunteering." Pulling her wand, she started casting spells his way, as he ran for the entrance, his own wand in hand to deflect her hexes.

The blonde haired wizard turned to the blonde haired witch sitting across from him at the table. "What do you think? Will she okay?"

Sighing and slumping back in her seat Bella replied, "She just needs to blow off some steam. I'm guessing they denied her requests again, which is why she's so upset."

Shaking his head, Jethro looked out the door Kathryn chased Tom through. "I don't really get it, why are they keeping her locked down like that?"

Sighing again, Bella answered. "A number of reasons, really. One is she's new blood, she wasn't "Raised in the Shadows" like some other families in the cult are. So they don't really trust her, despite making her swear those oaths. So when she brings up a non-Traditional idea, they feel they have to slap her down to put her in her place."

Jethro growled at that. "Bunch of fools."

Bella nodded in agreement. "They are. They are also hoarders, really." Shaking her head in sadness, she continued, "One of the arguments I used to convince her that it was a good thing we all join was that they had so much knowledge accumulated through the years. What good we could have done for the world if we used that knowledge to better everything for everyone."

"And then they slap us all with oaths not to spread or use the knowledge in non approved endeavors. What a sly oath. Only after swearing did we find out how restrictive that caveat was." He gritted his teeth. If only they'd known how entrapping it was. But then, there was also the added threat of obliviation. Join or forget.

Bella couldn't do anything but nod in agreement. "They are so shortsighted and blinded by their ascension myth. Instead of using what magical knowledge they've gathered to create something great, they continue to wallow in their dreams, year after year, for centuries. It's so disgusting. Everything we've proposed would even make life better for the cult, but no. They are like a beggar that has a found a purse of gold. But instead of buying a farm to gain a better life, they continue to wallow in the muck, clutching their treasure to their chest."

"Like you said, disgusting." Kathryn stated, as she reentered the room, sitting down next to Bella. "Thanks Tom! That was cathartic." She called out to the door.

"Maybe for you, but now I can't get in the door!" Tom cried as he tried to maneuver his way through the door with the impressive antler rack sprouting from his head.

"Quit complaining, you big baby." Kathryn teased him as she casually ended her hex. The antlers she gave him shrank back into his head, allowing him to join them at the table. "So, as you probably guessed, they denied our request to set up a business that would use the cult's knowledge of runes. Ignore the fact that doing this would give us huge influence throughout the wizarding world. And we would gain many more eyes and ears through our employees, who wouldn't need to be part of the cult. They also cut our budget by 10% as a punitive measure, I guess because I haven't learned my place yet."

Jethro and Tom couldn't help growling out what they'd like to do to those backwards, blind, idiots. Bella felt the same, but she kept her plotting in her head.

Kathryn nodded in agreement. "This final attempt has proven to me that those bigoted, stiff necked fools will never change. Even something like this which could only benefit the organization, they refuse to consider because it's not "Working in the Shadows", like tradition demands. So."

She stared in each of their eyes in turn to impress on them her seriousness. Bella, her blonde, brainy best friend. Tom, her protective older brother who brings the humor into her life. Jethro, Bella's brother; a warrior-scholar who would be just as comfortable in a debate or a fight; and who she feels some warmth towards.

"So." She repeated. "It's time to stop trying to push for something they'll never accept. From now on, I will be the perfect Number in the Shadow. I'll follow the rules exactly." And only keep to the bare minimum her oaths force her into, she left unsaid.

They all understood. They couldn't say it out loud, for fear of running afoul their oaths. But they were no longer going to pour their heart and soul into their work with the cult. They would do the bare minimum. And if they happened to find a method of getting out from under their oaths? Well, they couldn't really even think it too loud at this time.

"Okay, to business. They are interested in the tomb. Here's what we're going to do to try to uncover its location…"

* * *

"Weeee!" Luna screamed as she slid down the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. When she landed at the bottom, she looked at those who were already assembled. "Can we do that again?" She asked.

Ginny laughed, and replied, "I'm sure we will Luna. It's only April, and we still have a couple months left in term for you to enjoy all the slides you want."

After the laughter died down, Ron said, "Okay, we should split into our groups and prepare for the assault now. Sirius, Harry, Hermione, and I will go in first. Once we've erected the barriers and trap spells, we'll give the signal for Remus, George, and Fred to enter and place the cage, while they are doing that, Tonks, Luna, and Ginny will stage themselves behind the barriers to help in the off chance things go wrong."

George moved to one side of Ron, while Fred moved to the other. "We know, Ronnie. We've gone over this plenty of times. Let's just get on with it." George said while they placed their hands on his shoulders.

After a chorus of "Okays" and "Let's do it" were heard, they split into their groups, moving down the tunnel.

Once they arrived at the door to the chamber, they paused. Harry and Hermione together would move to the left side of the statue the basilisk would come out of, while Ron and Remus moved to the right side. Once there they would use transfiguration to build barriers for the teams to hide behind in case things went wrong, and they couldn't trap the snake.

With a hissed _§Open§_ the door to the chamber slid open.

Ron and Sirius moved together to the right, creating barriers as they went that would act as fall back positions while Harry and Hermione did the same to the left. The barriers they created had small looking holes that pointed down, so they could see what was immediately on the other side without the risk of looking up into any basilisk gaze. As a secondary measure, the peepholes were covered by one way mirrors, so that any gaze would be reflected back on the viewer.

Once they set up the barriers, they gave the signal. Remus, Fred, and George entered the chambers. Once they arrived at the barriers around the statue, they pulled out three cages that they placed in the proper positions. Then they enlarged the cages to the size needed to capture a 60 foot basilisk, interlocking the cages, with the entrance at the mouth of the statue.

While Remus, Fred, and George were setting up the cages, Tonks, Luna, and Ginny joined Harry, Hermione, Sirius, and Ron on overwatch, to react in case anything went wrong.

"Ready." Remus called out.

"Set." Fred followed.

"Go!" George couldn't let such a perfect setup go.

 _§Speak to me, Slytherin, the greatest of the Hogwarts Four§_ Harry hissed once everyone was behind the barriers.

The mouth of the statue opened. Something started to slither out; when it noticed the cage it was entering. Pausing to consider its position, it rammed against the cage, which shifted back from the statue.

Fred cried out, "No, I forgot to anchor it! Quick, we've got to spell it down!"

Fred, George, Remus, and Tonks jumped out from behind the barriers, intent on using anchor spells to stop the cage from moving. Before they could cast their spells, all hell broke loose.

The cage went flying up and fell back from the statue, revealing a 60 foot basilisk plushy.

The plushy went on a rampage, shooting paint balls from its eyes at everyone at a phenomenal rate. Fred, George, Remus, and Tonks, out in the open, immediately got splattered in the face, indicating they were out and "Dead".

While the rest of the group tried to pin down the creature, nothing was working. It moved around too fast, breaking down their barriers and splattering them all with paint balls. It only stopped once it finally got the last of them, settling down in what appeared to be smug plushy fashion.

"And that is why we are practicing in the Room of Requirement before tackling the real thing!" Ron yelled out with a little bit of frustration in his voice.

"Okay, you've got a good point." Fred admitted in a semi-embarrassed tone.

While Luna and Ginny went to play with the "cute plushy", Harry stopped next to Ron.

"I don't remember the actual snake moving that fast." Harry questioned Ron.

"Are you wondering why I made it so fast?" Ron asked for clarification in response. At Harry's nod, Ron continued to answer. "The only real measure of it we've got is the memories of your encounter with it. While it's true in your memories it moved kind of slow, you need to remember that it only moved that way after Fawkes pecked its eyes out." At Harry's questioning look, Ron continued. "While viewing the memory I paid attention to how it moved before and after. Fawkes really saved your life that day. My guess is that because of its magical gaze, it is a very visually oriented hunter. Once Fawkes took away its vision, it became much more hesitant and slow."

Hermione, Remus, Sirius, and Tonks had joined Harry and Ron by this time, while Fred and George joined Ginny and Luna on top of the plushy. Sirius' wife, Hestia, was sitting this operation out on account of being pregnant. Once they heard Ron's explanation, they all went into their memories of viewing Harry's encounter with the Basilisk.

After reviewing the memory with that specific idea in mind, Hermione became quite pale, and threw her arms around Harry, hugging him fiercely. The realization of how close to death he had come struck her particularly hard. Sirius and Remus were just gripping his shoulders. They were muttering words along the lines of "Never again, pup."

With them all on the same page, Ron continued. "The way I see it, and judging by snakes in general, at first the Basilisk didn't consider you a threat, and it was having fun playing with you. Even if it didn't have the deadly gaze, with its sight intact, it could have caught and ended you quick. Once it lost its sight, you could see it bumping into things, missing its strikes, and generally being unable to catch you."

Ron moved to sit down on some rubble, while watching his siblings and Luna play on the plushy. The rest of the group moved to sit with him, winding down from the stressful encounter. Even if it was just a plushy, it was a scary plushy.

"Snakes can be lighting quick, and very accurate in their strikes, as long as they know where their prey is. So I made sure to request the room to reflect that in this exercise. There were some mistakes we made. Some things we can improve on, others I think we need to do differently altogether." Ron concluded.

Looking thoughtful, Sirius added his thoughts. "Transfiguring the barriers took too long."

Remus joined in. "I agree. Sitting outside the chamber, waiting for the signal while not knowing what was going on was too nerve wracking. I think that's why we made mistakes while prepping the cage."

Everybody generally agreed with that statement.

"What we should do is have everyone separately write down a report of our plushy encounter." Ron stated. "After writing their view on what happened, they should include what they think could be done to improve. It doesn't have to be polished like we're turning it in for a grade or anything like that." Hermione started a bit at that. "Tomorrow's Saturday. We can get together after lunch, read each other's reports. Watch a memory of the incident, and then start planning how to change our approach. I'd also suggest that once we've got a new and better plan, we practice at half speed without the snake plushy. This will serve to get our coordination down and ensure we can go through the checklist properly without forgetting anything. Once we've got it down, we can speed up until we're going 100%. Then we can add the plushy of doom back in."

After everyone laughed, they got up to join the rest of the group on the plushy. Tonks took the initiative to inform the rest of the group what they'd decided to do. After playing around a bit more they broke apart for the evening.

* * *

The middle of May found the group in front of the doors to the real Chamber of Secrets. They had been spending the past four weeks fine tuning their attack. They'd practiced every few days in the Room of Requirement.

After the first few practices, it almost became a game for each member of the teams to try to one up each other in programming the encounter. Anything and everything that could go wrong would be programmed to do so.

They quickly found the utility of battlefield transfiguration to be priceless. Recognizing that there would not always be convenient debris to utilize, they started to create their individual battle transfiguration pouches (BTP). The BTPs were basically small hip or thigh pouches with space expansion charms, and some special charms they'd gotten from their extensive library that acted as an item retrieval charm. Once they put their hand in the pouch, they simply had to think of what item they wanted, and it appeared in their hand. That way they wouldn't have to stick their arm up to their shoulder into their pouch to dig around for the desired item while wasting time.

They would stock their BTPs with all kinds of objects they had transfigured and shrunk, to prepare to deploy in a battle. Everything from barriers, shields, even one room cabins, to figurines of dogs, stags, birds, and various others that were ready to be animated in battle. They were even testing out the idea of remote sentries that could fire spells, similar to what Ron had set up in the Forbidden Forest to catch the acromantulas. The only problem was target identification. Ron had only gotten it to work for capturing the acromantulas because the spells he'd discovered were all geared to attack something with similar blood to the target. It would take quite a bit of work to change it up so that it would fire stunning spells at everything that wasn't keyed into it instead. Ron had decided that it was something he'd work on later, after they catch themselves a basilisk.

After everyone double checked that they had all their gear, the door to the Chamber of secrets was opened.

With their practice and updated battle plans everyone moved smoothly, exhibiting great teamwork. They still worked in the same groups, but all moved in at the same time, laying down premade barriers and placing wards.

Within two minutes the Chamber of Secrets was transformed into a trap laden battle field.

The cage was in place, layered with one way mirrors so that they could see in, but the basilisk's gaze wouldn't be able to reach them. Even then, the front of the cage, where the head would be locked down was solid, to take no chance of them being killed by the gaze.

Everyone reported they were in position and ready for battle.

The password was hissed.

The statue's mouth opened.

Ron could hear a hissing voice coming from the open mouth of Slytherins statue. Last month when they began preparing for this operation he'd already purchased the parseltongue language pack in preparation.

 _§Who summons me? Riddle, Riddle. You want me to eat someone? It's been so long since I've had a meal.§_ The voice moaned piteously. _§Mudblood meals are nasty, but I'll take them. I'll take them all!§_

The snake's head started moving out of the statues mouth, when the snake saw the cage around it, and paused.

 _§What is this? How dare you try to cage me!§_ the snake hiss-roared.

Which is when the spells on the cage activated. The spells they'd placed at the entrance of the cage acted as a type of conveyor belt, grabbing onto what was inside the cage and passing it further into the cage where it met more conveyor belt spells. Before the snake could react, its whole body was conveyed out of the statue, and into the cage. Once it was fully inside, the door to the cage slammed shut.

The snake immediately started thrashing about, roaring out threats of death and digestion. Their group had designed the cage sturdy enough, though. It was just big enough to fit the snake, but not let it have enough room to really thrash around or twist up, so it was forced to lay in one straight line, incapable of getting enough momentum to break free. The cage itself was also held down in place by three methods. Anchor bolts driven directly into the ground, sticking spells between the cage and the ground, and wires from the top of the cage ran to anchor bolts further away in the ground. Similar to how a tent has guy lines.

Ron poked his head out from behind his barrier once he'd seen the cage door spring shut through the peephole of his barrier. After observing the basilisk trapped in the cage for a bit, and listening to the yelled threats, he started looking around at his teammates.

George and Fred started dancing and celebrating the easy capture.

Luna started cooing at the silly snake, while looking inside.

Ron had a terrifying thought pop in his head as he watched Luna get in front of the snake. What if her Byakugan's ability to see though objects made her vulnerable to the snake's gaze? Just as he was about to shout for her to get away, he realized it was too late. She was already looking at it. And she was okay.

'Thank goodness.' Ron thought as he flopped to the floor, sweating in fear. 'That gave me a heart attack.' As he started calming down, he thought about further ramifications to Luna having the ability to see through most solid objects. 'That would explain how in so many of the stories Luna is so blunt about the "facts of life". She's probably seen more of it than any 10 kids her age combined. Do we all look naked to her most of the time?' Ron blushed at the thought. 'It must be why she doesn't care about fashion if that's true. What do clothes matter if everyone looks naked despite clothes?" Shaking his head to get rid of the paths his mind was going down, he refocused on what was going on.

Hermione, Luna, and Remus were recording all the arithmetic measurements they could about the basilisk's gaze inside the cage. Harry was hovering at her side, watching but not participating.

Sirius, Fred, and George were doing some kind of victory dance on top of the cage, while Ginny and Tonks watched, laughing.

Standing up while enjoying the stooge's antics, Ron joined the group at the head of the cage.

"Okay, we've got all the readings we need on his gaze, as well as his magical core composition for now. Let's get started on the next phase." Hermione reported.

With everyone in agreement, and the stooges having stopped their celebration, everyone moved to the next phase. A one room cabin was pulled out, enlarged, and fitted to the head of the cage. The cabin had an opening that snugly fit the cage, and was clamped together.

Inside the cabin was a single goat, chained to face the basilisk. The team double checked that all the diagnostic and recording spells were running properly.

Remus, Tonks, Harry, and Hermione took their place by the cage. Following the lockout safety protocols they'd established, they visually and audibly double checked that everyone in the group was safely standing in a no death vision zone.

Once the group's safety was double checked, the four placed their wands to the cage in the lockout positions, and opened an aperture large enough for the basilisk to look out, but not large enough for the basilisk to fit anything through.

The goat died from the gaze. The recording equipment, mostly consisting of parchments and quills, recorded the arithmancy of what had happened. The lockout procedure was engaged once again, making safe the front of the cage. Which they double checked by introducing another goat into the cabin. The second goat lived, for now.

They started running all the medical diagnostics on the dead goat that they could. Their goal was to find out exactly what did the basilisk glare do to cause death. How to protect against it? Was it duplicable? Was the goat still edible?

For the next hour the group ran experiments with goats. What happens when the goat saw the basilisk's reflection in a mirror? What about if it bounced off two mirrors? Three? Did anything happen if the goat was facing away from the basilisk? Everything the group could think of to test they did.

They found out that the basilisk doesn't have any magic radiating from its eyes normally. It's only when they connect gazes with another being that the magic sends the death beam. They also found out that it's very similar, arithmantically, to the killing curse. The eyes are the window to the soul. Somehow the basilisk gaze connects to the victim's soul, and sends out a magic wave that cuts the connection to the body.

Whoever in the past that created the killing curse must have had basilisks to study. They tweaked the spell enough to affect the victim no matter what part of the victim the spell hit. But there's always a give and take when tweaking spells. Changing that part of the spell made it too weak to kill. So they added an emotion based power surge. Hate. Pure hate was required to power the spell enough to make it lethal.

Like Bellatrix LeStrange told Harry: You have to mean it to cast the unforgivable spells.

Finally, after all the data they collected they decided it was time to kill the basilisk. Harry had tried talking to the creature, but it was too far into insanity. They didn't know if it was still sane when Riddle got to it when he was a school boy, but it was too far gone to listen to reason now. And it was too dangerous to let loose.

So they transfigured a rooster, and made it crow. It seemed to cause a little pain to the basilisk, but nothing else. Next they pulled out a live rooster, and had it crow. That did the job. The magical difference between a live rooster and a transfigured fake seems to be important. Studying the after effects, the reason the crow of a rooster was effective is that it had the proper modulation to follow the magical pathways the basilisk uses to cast its gaze on victims, but it seems to double the basilisk's magic back on its own soul. Basically causing it to cast the killing curse on itself.

They speculated that since the basilisk isn't a naturally born creature, but created, that this was a weakness that was built in, to make them easier to handle. Unfortunately, unless they tried their hand at basilisk creation, they wouldn't find out anytime soon. No one was eager to create such deadly little hatchlings. Even Luna, though she claimed they would be cute, admitted they wouldn't be nearly as cute as her snake plushy.

The final task for the expedition was rendering the basilisk down to parts. Everything was studied and magical properties recorded. Basilisks are very rare; and a thousand year old one even more so.

Hermione was already talking about writing the definitive book to basilisks. She promised everyone would get a copy. The announcement was met with cheers.

* * *

A week later, when everyone in the team had a chance to rest, they returned to the Chamber of Secrets. They had some exploring to do. With the help of Luna's special eyes, they were able to find the hidden library of Slytherin they all knew had to be there. They also found tunnels and pathways out to the forbidden forest that didn't pass through the Hogwarts wards.

Ron had hoped there would be a library hidden in the chamber. He'd done a search through his library he'd gotten from the Room of Requirement, and knew there had to be books hidden there, or somewhere else, because there was no Journals of Slytherin in his collection. So he knew the crafty old wizard had hid them somewhere else.

Everyone got a copy of the whole library, which Ron added his copies to his UMALT. This summer he would spend some time reading each of them. Even the half of the collection that was in parseltongue was no problem for him now, since it looked like it was written in English.

Those books and the pyramid tomb would be enough to keep them busy all summer long, Ron was sure.


	17. Chapter 17

Ron landed on his feet from the portkey. Looking around the camp the curse breakers set up, he noticed several tents grouped together around a large fire pit off to his right, with the pyramid in front of him. It was still early enough in the morning that the air felt cool, before the sun would heat blast everything.

Ron, along with the rest of the group that had been huddled together so they could get a hand on the hula hoop, started spreading out and looking around at the site of their very own pyramid.

The sand had been excavated from around the pyramid up to several hundred feet, leaving the pyramid lying in the center of an enormous sand bowl. The front of the pyramid had a rectangular entrance hall extending out, with three pairs of obelisks planted in a row leading to the entryway.

"Welcome to the Chufu pyramid!"

Ron tore his attention away from the pyramid to see a wizard in pink safari garb was standing at the front of the curse breaker team that was there to turn over the sites wards to the TRG.

'Well, dressing like that is one way to make sure to be highly visible for your team, I guess. Silly wizards. Although, now that I think about it, with color changing charms you can have a different colored outfit every day of the week. Or even every hour of the day. Add in transfiguration and a lot of time on your hands, and it's no wonder wizarding fashion is odd.'

Ron snorted in his head in amusement. 'I can just imagine two friends meeting up with each other at a bar. One of them mocks the other for wearing a dress, and the other replies, "Nah, man, these are pants. I just transfigured them a bit for a bit of a breeze on the undercarriage." Of course everyone who heard him likes that idea and the next thing you know the whole wizarding world is wearing dresses. I mean robes. Err..pants.'

Sirius Black, as Lord Black representing the TRG, stepped forward to greet the head curse breaker, Reginald. Sirius seemed to take delight in calling him "Reggie".

Sirius introduced the group from the TRG that was there for the initial handover and tour. Sirius and his wife, Hestia. Remus and Tonks Lupin. Harry and Hermione Potter, and her parents, Dan and Emma Granger. Arthur and Molly were absent, being needed at the inn, so Bill was standing in as the Weasley family representative, with Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny present. Xenophilius and Luna Lovegood rounded out the group.

While waiting his turn to be keyed into the wards, Ron chatted with Ginny and Luna, and throwing in jokes towards Fred and George as they played around.

Today was the day they would finally get to see what their haul was. Even though the Weasley family would get the smallest percentage of the haul (because the Weasleys were poor they weren't able to invest much capital into the endeavor), they would at least get a modest sum of gold and a copy of the scrolls and books.

'It really shows how much Arthur and Molly have changed these past three years that the Potters can stand to be around them again. If Molly had remained the same overbearing harridan, I'm sure the Potters wouldn't stay within three countries of them.' Ron mused to himself.

Ron was totally fine with the way his life was set up at the moment. He already had his investments earning him money in the muggle world, while his elves were taking care of producing silk and potions ingredients to sell. He was therefore able to spend practically all his time getting stronger and more skilled. After a few years of exercising and practicing his magic, he'd almost become addicted to his routine. It reminded him of something he'd heard of in his past life called a runner's high.

As they began the tour while walking the halls of the pyramid, Ron paid attention to Reginald describing the series of curses they'd had to dismantle. Flesh rotting curses, inside out curses, flesh devouring scarabs, and ceiling crushing curses were some of the more benign ones. At least the person died relatively quickly with those. The curse that let a person experience being digested over a thousand years was aptly named the Sarlacc's Satisfaction. Nasty business indeed.

Reginald was just describing the self destruct that many of the pyramid tombs had installed, in the case that it seemed someone was about to take possession of it. Those always take the most finesse and time to disarm without the whole thing exploding, or melting into molten rock.

Ron was only half paying attention to what Reginald was saying. Something kept buzzing at the edge of his awareness. It was like many voices whispering at the edge of his hearing.

Ron looked around at the room they were in. At first nothing seemed out of place to him. There were hieroglyphs on the wall, and some benches around the room, but otherwise nothing of note. As Ron was glancing at the hieroglyphs again, one of the figures on the wall suddenly seemed to be colored in, instead of being the color of stone it was carved in. The carved figure had a vibrant red cloak and a white headdress.

Moving over to peer closer at it, Ron couldn't help himself from touching the figure. As soon as he touched the carved figure, it sunk into the wall, and a series of clanks and groans came from behind the wall. Startled and alarmed, Ron stumbled away from the wall.

"What did you do?!" Reginald yelled as he pulled his wand and stepped in front of Ron, casting diagnostic spells on the wall.

"Nothing! I just touched the wall!" Ron, worried that he set off some curse that would kill them all, blurted out.

After a few more clanking sounds from behind the wall, the wall dropped into the floor. Staring into the revealed room, Ron saw bookshelves facing him, with a large open path in the center of the room. Looking at the path, he noticed several more rows of bookshelves, leading up to an arch standing on a two foot tall platform. The arch was eight feet tall, four feet wide, and made out of some type of black rock.

At first the arch looked normal, nothing special about it. But as Ron watched, he saw runes on the arch powering up. A hum could be heard in the air. When the runes received enough power, a glow started forming inside the arch. It quickly expanded into what appeared to be a portal filling the inside of the arch.

On the other side of the portal, Ron could see a hall similar to the one they stood in, but without the bookshelves. There was a single large table, with chairs placed around it. A thick layer of dust coated everything in sight, signifying that it had been many years since the room had been put to use.

Everyone stood frozen, staring at the unexpected find. Ron shifted his gaze from face to face. Some of them like Hermione and Remus looked like they were barely holding themselves back from devouring the library right in front of their eyes. Sirius, Fred, and George looked to be gazing at the portal like they wanted to explore through it. Only Hestia's hand on his arm seemed to be holding Sirius back.

"So…would checking this room for curses be under our previous contract?" Ron spoke loudly, breaking the trance of greed everyone seemed to be laboring under. They nervously shuffled their feet as they remembered all the curses that had been previously described. Now was not the time for impulsive decisions; the group all looked to Reginald for his answer.

Coughing a few times, Reginald muttered a few words too low for anyone to hear; then finally spoke up. "Yes, well, unfortunately the contract ended with the handover of the wards. We could still check for you, since we seemed to have missed a fairly important find." He offered with a red face, embarrassed that they missed something so large.

The adults in the room went into a huddle to discuss the pros and cons of having the curse breakers run a check on the room while not under contract.

Meanwhile Ron opened himself up to sensing magic, focusing on the library and portal room in front of him. He felt many spells in the room on the shelves of books, but they didn't feel hostile. They felt like very old caretakers. The portal itself felt wild and chaotic, like a white water river flowing through a canyon.

Hearing the adults talking once more, Ron opened his eyes and paid attention. Sometimes it was all he could do to keep himself from jumping into these discussions on important matters. He knew the adults all viewed him as a kid, even the ones who knew he'd transmigrated from another earth. And so he was barred from the adult conversations.

Which, when Ron thought about it wasn't that bad. It would be difficult to explain to his siblings if they treated him like an adult when he was only 14. That's a whole conversation that he just didn't want to have. Especially because the more time he spent here, the more he felt like Ron, and the less he felt like Carl.

He figured having a body that was going through puberty and insisted he was 14 was clashing with his mind that was convinced he was an adult. The chaotic feelings and impulses of puberty was just something he'd have to deal with for now, he sighed to himself.

The group of adults broke apart, and Sirius graciously accepted Reginald's offer of checking the room for curses. However the TRG insisted on offering a modest fee along with having the curse breakers sign magically enforced non disclosure forms. They didn't want tales of what they'd found to be floating through the rumor mills. That would just make them targets for thieves and raiders.

Ron noticed that Emma looked just as excited as Hermione to see curse breakers in action. Now that Emma was able to use magic from the potion she'd purchased from the guild, she was very enthusiastically jumping into the study of magic. She and Dan still had very limited abilities, having only studied for a few months, but that didn't diminish their enthusiasm at being able to join their daughter in the world of magic.

After some time the curse breakers scans came up clean; no dangerous magic in the room. The spells on the bookshelves were to preserve the books and scrolls in perfect condition.

Now that the group was assured there wasn't danger or death hanging over them, Ron got some good natured teasing at his accidental find. When Fred started declaring that he was their "Lucky Charms" in a bad Irish leprechaun accent, Ron wanted to punch whoever introduced television to the twins. Especially when George got him in a head lock and loudly declared that "They're always after me Lucky Charms."

'Gits. Funny mischievous gits, but gits nonetheless.' Ron thought while breaking out of the headlock George had him in and reversing it on him into a full nelson, shaking him about a little to the sound of laughter from the onlookers at their rough housing. He may be two years younger than the twins, but he was already a couple inches taller than them and stronger. 'Not that they'll learn anything from this, except that it's fun to play with their younger brother' Ron smirked to himself.

Once they'd settled down, Reginald continued the tour of their pyramid. Reginald showed them the treasury rooms, filled waist high with gold and gems. The armories filled to the brim with all kinds of weapons, both melee and ranged, and magical artifacts. There were several rooms set aside as studies that had scrolls on shelves; and desks for writing and studying. The royal chambers were opulent, the dungeons had dark arts torture implements, and the final resting place of the pharaoh was also filled with the sarcophagi of the pharaoh's servants and wives. Apparently he really tried to take it all with him into the next life.

It was mid afternoon by the time the tour was complete. By that time the majority of the curse breakers had taken down their tents and cleaned up the area so it looked like they'd never been there. Waving farewell as Reginald apparated out, Ron gathered with the others to set up for the fidelius charm.

Even with the contracts and non-disclosure agreements, there were still ways for the information to be leaked. Little bits and pieces casually stated that might not breach the agreement, but when collated into a whole would give someone the information needed to find their site. It was a situation they'd rather avoid.

After some research they came up with a modified fidelius charm that would be ritually cast as a group to really overpower the spell and extend the reach of the secret.

 _"The Chufu Pyramid of the Tomb Raiding Group is located in the deserts of Egypt."_

The knowledge of the pyramid and the wide area that the secret would hide in would hopefully keep anyone off the trail of tracking the site down. In the Harry Potter books, even though the death eaters didn't know the exact location of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, they were able to narrow down the location, and station watchers in the area. Dumbledore had only hid the location of his headquarters at a single address through the Fidelius. Hiding the secret in the deserts of Egypt, instead of a specific location, should make it so even if the site is stumbled upon, the secret should be kept vague enough they couldn't lead anyone directly back to the pyramid. Also, associating the Chufu pyramid with the TRG would hopefully ensure that even if the site was found, it wouldn't be linked to them. A form of security through obscurity.

After laying down the ritual circle, everyone took their places inside and started channeling their magic through the circle to empower the charm, which would be cast by Remus.

Remus had always been the studious sort, so he had the knowledge and skill to cast the Fidelius. The only thing holding him back previously was his lack of magical muscle. However, he'd recently earned enough guild points to purchase a cure for his lycanthropy. Along with curing his lycanthropy, he had become a wolf animagus. It turns out that the majority of his magic had always been tied up in working to ensure that the primal wolf spirit his affliction foisted on him hadn't influenced him beyond the nights of the full moon.

Now that his magic was freed up from fighting his lycanthropy, and as a result of his magic working hard all those years, his power had grown greatly. With his magical knowledge and newly increased power, he probably could have taken on Dumbledore or Voldemort at the height of their power without too much effort. So he was chosen to be the focal point of the Fidelius charm.

The magic being fed into the casting gathered, like a lake being held back by a damn. Finally, when ready, Remus cast the charm.

Ron felt great confusion and dissonance from his senses. He couldn't make sense of what he was seeing, it was blurred one moment, blank the next, and he couldn't remember anything about the scenery around him.

Despite the confusion his senses were reporting, and not understanding where he was, he knew he was a part of casting the Fidelius, so he just needed to wait patiently for the keeper of the secret, whoever that was, to let him know.

He then heard Remus say, _"The Chufu Pyramid of the Tomb Raiding Group is located in the deserts of Egypt."_

His surroundings coalesced and made sense once more. Around him he heard the group mutterings at the aftermath of the Fidelius charm.

"Bloody annoying that was. Next time I'm casting it."

"There's no earthly way of knowing, which direction we are going."

'Trust George to reference the creepy scene of Willy Wonka…' Ron laughed to himself.

"Any casting you can walk away from…"

The group then cleaned up the circle, and went to set up their accommodations, wizard tents, for their stay while cataloging and splitting the loots. Later they planned to set up something more permanent, but for now they were too eager to get started.

* * *

In a muggle neighborhood in Cairo stood an inconspicuous building. It was inconspicuous for the reason that it looked like all the other buildings around it. No silly wizards or witches were walking in and out in muggle fashion disasters. The building wasn't defying physics in its construction. Everything looked so normal the thought never crossed anyone's mind that it could possibly be hiding the Shadow Cult's regional operations.

Sitting at her desk in the building, reviewing reports was Number Six, of the Numbers in the Shadows. The past few months had been a headache for Kathryn. She knew that despite her decreased budget, if she wasn't able to ensure that her people maintained the usual standards of work, she'd be criticized.

It would be the first step on a downward spiral. Her enemies would sense weakness, and attack over and over again until she'd be labeled as ineffective and powerless. She would lose her position as one of the Numbers, and then she'd be that much more vulnerable and unable to even protect herself, let alone her people. She would become a pawn, instead of one of the movers.

And that was something she'd never allow to occur.

So she'd had to work herself and her friends ragged, ensuring their efficiency was there. But of course there was a balance to be maintained. Do too well and it would show that she didn't need the previously higher budget after all. They could divert her funds and resources elsewhere. Another trap to avoid in the Shadow Cult that she had discovered was no different from government bureaucracy, just more cutthroat.

If there wasn't all that knowledge hidden from the world dangled in front of her like a carrot, she'd never have put up with the politics. Sure, she loved the power, but dealing with idiots made it harder and harder every year to remember just why she put up with them.

After signing off on yet another expenditure report, and putting it in her out pile, Kathryn paused. Her head cocked to the side, she tried to chase down the feeling she had, that something was awry.

Looking around her office, nothing was immediately noticeable. Her paperwork was organized. Her personal effects were where she always placed them.

She spread her magical senses out. No unusual spells. Casting an anima-revelio charm showed there was no living creature in her office other than her.

Looking around again, her eye was caught by a map on her wall. It wasn't unusual for her to have maps posted on her wall when in the middle of a search. Only, she couldn't remember exactly what she was searching for.

Interested, she rose from her seat at her desk and moved in front of her map to see what information she could glean.

The map was of the countries surrounding the Red Sea. Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Yemen were outlined in red. Various locations inside those countries had been highlighted.

She moved to her current files, where she would keep team search results. Reading through her files, she saw reports that eliminated each country one by one.

Israel, Ethiopia, and Yemen: no new activity from Gringotts.

Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Eritrea: Gringotts teams dispatched to analyze wards. It was determined they were locations of living wizards setting up a new home, so they were out of bounds for Gringotts, and of no real interest to the Shadow Cult, for now.

Whatever they were looking for was in Egypt or Sudan.

A knock on her door interrupted her thought process. While a little annoyed at the distraction, she kept the irritation out of her voice. "Enter."

The door opened and in trooped one of her search teams comprised of three members. The team leader, Johns, looked somewhat embarrassed.

"Boss, sorry for this. I swear this is the first time this has happened. I don't usually misplace orders, but I can't for the life of me find our most recent orders. I swear I haven't been drinking on the job!"

Number Six held up her hand to halt his embarrassing babble. "Where were you when realized you'd forgotten what I assigned you to do?" She asked. She wasn't about to admit that she couldn't remember the orders either. Appearance of strength and all that.

"Well, we were in the new bar, Bes Beer, and I swear we weren't drinking, we were just having lunch." He was really nervous. Likely they had been drinking. There was a good reason for his nervousness. Number Six's reputation among her people for fairness was only matched by how strictly and inventively she punished laxness.

"Wait one moment."

Number Six moved to her desk, picking up her phone, she called her search team in Sudan. On the third ring the call connected.

"Scoffeld here."

"Scoffeld, Six. What is your team currently doing?"

"Following up a lead for a pyramid in country. We should have the location and details later tonight."

"Very well. Giving you a heads up, the location we are after is likely not in Sudan. Follow through on your plans to obtain the information and forward it to base. Be prepared to leave in the next couple of days though. We are likely to need all hands for this search."

"Roger that, ma'am."

Hanging up the phone, Number Six looked at the team lead Johns. "It appears that a Fidelius was cast." She informed him. Johns and his team mates looked at each other in relief. Apparently they had already found the site once and had the rest of the afternoon off, which explained why they were in the bar and not working. "All we know thus far is that the site we are looking for is likely somewhere in Egypt and involves a pyramid. This may take a bit of extra work to find the who and the where. I trust you're up for it?"

Looking relieved that he wasn't going to be punished for dereliction of duty, Johns enthusiastically replied, "Yes, ma'am! We'll hunt them down!"

"Very good, gentlemen. Go back and write up a plan of attack on how you'll overcome the Fidelius hiding this information from us and submit it no later than tomorrow by four. Dismissed."

After Johns' team departed her office, Kathryn's eyes moved back to the map on her wall. "Just who are you, and what are you hiding from me? Hmm? It's only a matter of time before I find you."

With that promise to the unknown group, she moved back to her desk to continue her work. It wouldn't do to set a poor example for her people. If she expected them to do their best, she had to be on top of her game too.

* * *

The next morning Ron woke up at his usual time in the wizard tent set up at the Chufu pyramid site. Not wasting any time, he began his morning cultivation routine. He was able to make a dozen shadow clones now, so he split them up into groups of three.

Until breakfast three clones would study different magic subjects while three others would study muggle school subjects. Three would be set to practice the Lightning Rod cultivation technique, absorbing energy that will be transferred along with his memories to supplement and grow his magical core. The final three clones would use Taconite Caravel in the same way to grow and strengthen his soul.

Meanwhile Ron prime would be in his mini RoR living up to the name of his body cultivation technique, The Running Fool. After so much running Ron was even beginning to run in his dreams. But he loved how fast he was getting, so he'd put up with foolish dreams if that was the price of being dedicated to speed.

One of the aspects of his speed that he found fun to play with is the increase to his perception and processing speeds. It would be a pretty raw deal if he could move extremely fast but became blind while moving because of the inability to process what he was seeing Sometimes he sped up his perception to watch the world around him slow down until it looked like people were wading through water. It did make understanding what people were saying a little difficult, but with practice and patience he was able to decipher it.

Even with his highly increased max speed, his resting speed, both movement and processing/thinking, remained what any normal human experiences. 'Which is a very good thing' Ron thought, 'since I don't want to turn into some kind of speed hermit, always alone in the midst of a society that Just. Would. Not. Move!'

Ron chuckled a bit to himself as he finished up his workout, getting a shower before joining the rest of the TRG for breakfast.

"Moaning morning!" Ron cheerfully greeted those slumped at the breakfast table. "It looks like the coffee zombies are up!"

A few moans and distinctly unimpressed groans greeted Ron's observation.

"And we all know the only way to deal with coffee zombies is to bait traps with their favorite beans." Luna volunteered.

"So what have we caught today Luna?"

"Hazelnut and pumpkin spice zombies have fallen for the bait!" Luna sing songed.

Looking around the table Ron noticed he was getting the stink eye from Hermione, Emma, and Remus, while Harry, Sirius, Fred and George were snickering. The so called coffee zombies finished making their chosen brews and wandered off to do what zombies do in the morning.

"Well, Luna, it looks like it's going to be catch and release today." Ron concluded. "Maybe next time Fred and George can come up with a more effective trap?"

"Nope. Not happening." Fred immediately nixed the idea.

"Yeah, we learned in first year that no matter how funny the trap, you just don't get between a zombie and its coffee." George agreed.

"Damn right!" Some random zombie agreed from outside the dining area.

"And that's another thing," Fred continued, "they seem to somehow have extremely sharp senses related to their coffee."

"Angelina somehow knew the moment Fred even looked at her coffee wrong." George added in admiration for the girl.

Fred nodded vigorously, "Yup, that girl's got a mean stinging hex."

"I've seen both Hermione and Emma make their brew without once opening their eyes. It's uncanny." Harry added to nods of agreement from Dan.

They continued to joke and laugh through breakfast. Once everyone was finished with breakfast and the coffee junkies had their fix, they gathered in the main tent's conference room to plan how they were going to go about categorizing and sorting the treasure and libraries from the pyramid that were now theirs.

Ron sat back for the first 20 minutes, content to enjoy the spectacle of debate about who would be best on which team. He had already planned to send at least one clone to each team while he continued his daily study and cultivation routine. It seemed his fellow guild members were not used to thinking of using the clone technique for other activities.

It's a similar mindset to how muggleborn would forget they can use magic at home after they turn 17. They are so used to using clones only for training and study in secret that it didn't occur to them that everyone at the site is in the know, and so they can go wild.

When Ron finally decided to end the show and point that fact out to them, there were a few embarrassed faces. Those who had been arguing the hardest of course had the most entertaining faces.

After that they decided that they'd randomly pick who got to be assigned to which team. If they were able to make clones and wanted to they could send a clone to help out the different groups.

 **Treasure Room**

Sirius, Bill, Tonks, Fred, George

 **Pharaoh Library**

Remus, Harry, Hermione, Luna, Ginny

 **Hidden Library**

Emma, Hestia, Dan, Xenophilius, Ron

Originally Hermione had been chosen for the Treasure Room and Tonks was assigned the Pharaoh library, but neither was happy with the decision, so they switched. Aside from small jokes by their significant others (which were promptly crushed by couch threats) no one had any issues if someone wanted to switch with anyone else.

* * *

One month later.

"…and that's the final tally of gold coins." Bill was finishing up his weekly report on inventorying the treasure rooms. "We won't be able to spend those immediately, they would have to be melted down and recast into galleons first. There is also the possibility, as was pointed out to me, that we might be able to get a better price per coin in the muggle world, it being a historical relic and all, but we'd have to get them appraised by some experts. We also wouldn't be able to unload too many into the market before we started getting negative attention from the muggle authorities. Especially those from Egypt. They seem to believe things of this nature are some kind of "cultural artifact" that they should have ownership of."

A couple of the more rule oriented members looked vaguely guilty at that idea.

"Bloody thieves, the lot of them." Sirius interrupted. "They just want the gold, they don't care about history. It's just a good excuse that other people will swallow so they can legally steal what we've recovered."

"Remember how Fudge was before we successfully redirected him?" Harry mentioned, in total agreement with what Sirius said. "He was bought and paid for by Lucius Malfoy, death eater. He was the head of the government, and he didn't care what excuses were used, as long as it lined his pockets and made him look good to the people."

There were some nods in agreement around the table.

"At any rate, it's not like the Egyptian muggle government would have been able to hire curse breakers to get at the gold on their own. This is a magical site, so it's not really in their jurisdiction." Ron added his own two Knuts in. "And can you imagine what they would have done with the scrolls and books here if they had found it? The best we could have hoped for is for them to file it all away in some dusty corner of a museum. Then it would have been stolen from the muggles by either Gringotts or other wizards. The most likely is it would have been totally destroyed by trying to forcefully go through the pyramid, and all that knowledge would be lost forever."

Looks of horror came over the faces of the Ravenclaws (and Closet Claws) in the group. Knowledge is sacred to that lot, and Ron knew what side Hermione, for example, would be on in a choice between abiding by the rules and knowledge being destroyed, or breaking the law, breaking the law.

'Ah yeah, Judas Priest. Hey, I'm British now! I should start getting into that British pride thing.' Ron thought about it for a moment. 'Nah, that'll never work. I'm stuck in the wizarding world so I'm not exactly living British. Not even the original Ron Weasley was raised British, just wizard. I'd just come across as a try-hard foreigner. Oh well, at least I have magic to console me in my grief.'

Smiling inside at his momentary joke that would only amuse himself, so he wouldn't share with the rest of the group, Ron looked around. He noticed that all the book lovers seemed to be firmly decided that there's no way they would endanger the true treasures of the pyramid. The gold was only truly important as a means of obtaining more books, after all.

"That concludes our report." Bill finished.

"I'm sorry; whose report was that again?" Sirius asked leadingly.

"You're really going to make me say it?" Bill asked, while the rest of the room looked on in confusion or anticipation.

"Hey, a bet is a bet. If you can't pay the wager, don't gamble." Sirius replied with a big smile on his face.

After sighing, Bill continued in a deadpan voice. "Fine. That concludes the report of Team Paddy. Ahooo." Bill made the most boring howl ever, but the moment he did, the sounds of horns played, with cymbal crashes added in and confetti rained down on Bill.

Sirius of course cracked up laughing. Bill face palmed. Luna gathered confetti to continue tossing it at various people in the room. Everyone else was in varying states of snickers or outright laughter.

'The put upon look on Bill's face is what makes the lame joke so funny.' Ron thought to himself. 'That and Sirius' childlike glee at his silly prank is contagious.'

After a few minutes, Remus pulled his wand out and vanished the confetti, much to Luna's disappointment. "Okay then. Time for our summary of what we found in the Pharaoh's library."

Everyone settled down. This part was always interesting because the past few weeks they'd been sharing the summaries of some of the magical knowledge the Pharaoh had amassed. They now had some magical weapon forging techniques that have been lost to the ages, some special rituals to protect the nation's crops from pests, and various healing techniques.

Remus continued, "We finally began the history section which was the Pharaoh Chufu's recordings of his days. And it turns out that he didn't have this pyramid built. He found it already built, with a modest library in place. That library and this pyramid is what gave him the base he needed to build up his own little nation. We don't know much about his early life. He wasn't clear on that. He only mentions in passing that he had to flee the city he called home because the city lord of the time was assassinated, and his father was the guard that was blamed. He was away from home at the time, or he would have been put to the sword along with his family."

That was news to everyone. They'd all assumed that Chufu had been some aristocrat, not the son of a guard. But if that was his experience, no wonder he seized the opportunity to create his own power base. Having been powerless to save his family and forced to flee for his life could create a great desire for power and revenge in any individual.

"Did he mention who built the pyramid?" Emma asked.

"No mum." Hermione fielded the question. "In his journal he didn't mention finding any books detailing anything more about the builders than at an unspecified time previous to him finding the pyramid they left to protect what was left of their kingdom, in a "refuge built for them". So your guess is as good as ours."

"I ask because the translation of the books in the library is finally picking up. Now that we've gotten the language programmed into a translation spell matrix, we're finally getting somewhere. I don't suppose the Pharaoh mentioned the hidden library?"

"No, he hasn't mentioned it."

"He may have never found it then, because it's looking like the hidden library may have been left behind by these people seeking refuge." Emma concluded. "But we'll get to that when it's our turn. Sorry, please continue."

Nodding in acknowledgment, Remus continued. "Well, I won't go into a great deal of detail. If you're interested of course we'll be making copies for everyone. So, basically Chufu spent the next five years studying what magic he could from the library he found. He hid the pyramid through spells he found in the library, so only he could find it. He then spent the next several years building himself an army through working as a mercenary going from city to city for work."

"The spells he learned were incredibly helpful in allowing him to avoid many pitfalls that he otherwise would have fallen into. Keep in mind that at this time there really wasn't many nations around, it was mostly independent city-states. So after he'd gotten himself a decent size army, he was becoming a concern to several of these city-states. Two of them, whose leaders had a close relationship, entered into an agreement to stage a siege on a third city that was getting too powerful for the first two."

"But the devious plan of the two leaders was that as soon as they broke into the third city they would arrange an "accident" for Chufu so that his army would naturally be split between the two of them. Chufu had learned Legilimency, and spotted the plot a mile away. And not only the plot against him, but the two city leaders were plotting against each other. The greedy winner would not only have Chufu's well trained army, but they would have three cities, instead of only one and a half."

"Chufu was of course furious with the two, but he decided this was an opportunity he couldn't afford to give up. He started plotting. He delayed the siege's success long enough to make sure key men in the two city lord's armies would be his men after the leaders had their own accidents."

"When he was ready, he broke the city's defenses. In one battle he managed to triple the size of his forces, and took over three cities. He spent the next ten years consolidating his rule and forging his three cities into one small nation."

"When he felt his base was solidified enough, he moved on the city that killed his family and drove him away. The lord that killed his family was already dead, but his family was still in charge. He tortured and killed all the adults of the family, male and female, but not before informing them exactly why he was doing it. That the scapegoat family they killed 20 years ago had come back for revenge. He also informed them he was going to raise their own children as his slaves while teaching them to hate their family to the bones, and spit on their graves. Their children and their children's children would never escape the fate of being slaves."

"He really was quite spiteful." Ron dryly stated.

"Yes, quite." Remus replied. "Well, to shorten a longer story: for the next 50 years, every five to ten years, Chufu would take over another city, building himself quite the dynasty. When he felt it was close to the time he would die, he turned everything over to his grandson that he'd trained himself and retired to this pyramid with his servants and concubines. He tied their life force to his, so when he died they would too. That way they couldn't make off with his riches, or guide anyone else here. And it's remained undiscovered until Potter luck caused Harry to blow out a tire on the tip of the pyramid."

"Hey!" Harry protested.

"It has to be the hair." Ron commented. "I'm certain the curse spends most of its energy on messing with the Potter's hair. For every time he tries to tame it, or keep it down, the Potter curse doesn't have anywhere else to go and so it makes his life _interesting_."

"Hey!" Harry protested again. "That makes…a certain kind of sense, actually." He deflated and looked at Hermione. "It couldn't be, could it?"

Trying to look more confident than she felt, Hermione scoffed. "Of course not!" Looking at Ron scathingly, she added. "Now that someone has gotten Murphy's attention, though, it might not be a bad idea to take some precautions."

The silence lasted only a few moments, before Hermione couldn't hold it anymore, and her giggled "The look on your face" started everyone laughing with her.

"Fine, then." Harry pouted for a moment at Hermione, before looking at Ron. "But the next time something happens, I'm blaming you!"

"Whoa now, bad move, Harry. By saying that you've guaranteed something will happen." Ron joked.

"That pretty much sums up the journals we've read from Chufu." Remus interrupted the joking. "And we don't have anything else for this story time from the Pharaoh's library, so moving on to the report from the hidden library." He nodded at Emma.

Emma stood up from where she was seated, looking at her notes. "Like I stated earlier, it took some time to figure out the language for the people we've determined were called the Elemental Nation. There was quite a large history section, so we skipped to the last couple of books, first, to hopefully get an idea of just what happened to them. By their own account they were a very large nation, spanning several dozen cities. We haven't really been able to determine just how far back in time this was. Maybe if they've left some astronomy charts, we can compare constellation placement and figure out a timeframe, but for now it's a question without an answer."

"According to what we read, the Elemental Nation was one of the seven great countries. The seven countries seemed to have been quite stable and trading partners with each other. Naturally there was some conflict, but it seems there was a strict treaty between the seven of them. If any one nation tried anything too heavy handed, the other six would gang up on them to punish them. So they all played mostly honestly."

"And it seems that magic was a very common thing among the great countries. Most of their technology seems to have been based on using the magic in the atmosphere as a power source."

"According to the last record, word was spread through the seven countries that a certain mad sorcerer had been preparing for something called the Ritual of Ascension. It didn't go into too much detail about what this ritual entailed, except that if it happened this mad sorcerer would use the world's magic to empower himself into a literal god."

"Normally the countries would simply send people to kill him, but this mad sorcerer was in a class of his own. He'd already destroyed three small nations all by himself. The seven great countries had tried to apprehend him previously, but they failed, and decided trying again wasn't worth the effort. So no one really believed they would be able to succeed before he finished doing his ritual."

"The thing about the ritual that seemed to terrify everyone was that the ritual would literally suck all magic out of the world. There would be no more magic. All the technology they had would be useless without a power source. Many people had altered themselves so much with magic that they literally couldn't live without it. They would die by the tens of thousands. It would basically be the end of civilization. A world wide disaster that no one could escape."

"When word spread, there was panic, riots, and pandemonium. There was one general who declared he would assemble a great army. He recruited people from everywhere. He was going to kill this mad sorcerer, or die trying. Check this out though, his name was Myrddin."

There was exclamations from everyone at the idea of this general being Merlin.

"We have no idea if it is that Merlin, or if the Merlin we know is named after him or what. So no use asking." Emma firmly stated.

"The Elemental Nation's government decided they couldn't rely only on the hope of Myrddin succeeding. So they came up with an idea that might work. They were going to build themselves a refuge." Everyone got knowing looks in their eyes. That's what Chufu had said about the people who built the pyramid.

"They were going to build an enormous pocket dimension world. It was very ambitious. The idea is that if it was only connected through an inactive portal, it would avoid letting the ritual suck the magic out of their pocket dimension. The people they left behind could reconnect the portal if the army succeeded in stopping the mad sorcerer."

"So they planned that the pocket dimension would basically take a huge chunk of land and ocean into the pocket dimension as the basis for growing their little world. They then would build an artificial sun to give light and warmth, to be able to grow things."

"The record mentioned that the Elemental Nation wasn't the only Great Country who planned to create a pocket dimension. All seven countries planned to do the same."

"About a week before their experts told them the mad sorcerer planned to begin his ritual, the Elemental Nation gathered their people, and planned to create the pocket dimension. This pyramid is where the portal to their pocket dimension was to be located. So we can all guess where the portal in the arch goes to."

There was silence. Everyone was digesting the magnitude of this revelation. There was a large pocket dimension, potentially another world, in their pyramid.

Ron cleared his throat. "Uh, guys. Maybe it's time we tested the portal to make sure it is safe to go through and back."

"Why?" was heard from several people.

"Well, even though that room looks abandoned, with all the dust, we really don't know if there is some alarm we set off. Even though it has been a month already without anyone showing up, we really don't know what's on the other side, and if people are gathering as we speak. And while we have created a fidelius on this side of the portal, we have absolutely no defenses on the other side to make sure no one can surprise us."

Just as everyone was about to jump up and run around blindly, Ron cast a firecracker bang. "Let's do this calmly by the numbers. Plan first, quickly, and then act. How do we test if the portal is safe to transit is the first question."

George cried out, "Animal testing!"

"Good, thank you for volunteering for the group to test it. Sirius, Hestia, and Tonks, as the closest we have to aurors, could you go with George-"

"And Fred!" Fred called out.

"-and Fred to test out the safety of transit? I'll send a clone with you to do the initial human test after the animals." At their acknowledgment, Ron thanked them. "Remus, we are likely to want to cast a fidelius soon on the other side. Could you go gather the materials needed for the group casting? Thanks. Bill, Hermione, Harry, you should prepare to cast some basic hiding and protection wards, at least on that room on the other side of the portal, until we can get the fidelius up. The rest of us can act as helpers, gophers, and extra wands as needed. Are there any other ideas on how we can set up protections and defenses quickly?"

After a quick discussion the group had a solid plan to fortify their position.

Dan and Emma quickly decided to prepare their firearms, since they weren't very good at casting spells yet.

They decided they would deploy clones under stealth spells to do the initial recon, and setting off any traps or curses that might be there.

"Alright, let's get started!"


	18. Chapter 18

Clone Ron was standing next to George, intently watching a goat that was lying on the floor.

The goat stood up, looked around, and bleated.

Fred and George cheered the goat.

"Success! The goat lives!"

"Long live the goat!"

Ron face palmed at their antics, while Sirius snickered and Hestia and Tonks eye rolled.

"Well, that's a successful test." Clone Ron stated as Bill, Hermione, Harry, and Ron entered the room the portal was set up in. Clone Ron looked over at Ron Prime. "I'm going to go on through now, boss."

Ron nodded affirmative at the clone, and without wasting any more time, the clone jumped through, landing on his feet. The goat was only lying down before because of the way Fred had tossed it through the portal. But it did prove that living things can pass through just fine.

Looking back at the portal, clone Ron waved and stated out loud, "Hey guys, the transition is smooth, I hardly felt it. Best damn transport method I've experienced in the wizarding world. The setup on this side is the same, an arch of the same size with a portal in the middle. There's nothing beyond the portal, just a wall. Give me a moment to run some basic diagnostic spells before anyone comes through. Just because nothing has happened yet, doesn't mean nothing will in the future."

After acknowledgement from the group still on the other side of the portal, clone Ron started casting detection spells everywhere in the room, starting with the area around the portal.

"So far there's no detected magic other than the portal. The walls and floor immediately around the portal are clear." Clone Ron began moving further away from the portal, nudging the goat aside that was standing behind him. "Still nothing. Not even residue of spells. This is really weird, you'd expect something more from a magical refugee society. Moving on. I'm approaching the wall the door is on, and still nothing. Not even locking charms on the door. The door is made of stone, and seems to be operated by a lever next to it."

Clone Ron was interrupted by three people yelling from the portal.

"Don't touch that lever!"

"Don't open it yet!"

"Wait!"

Ron prime eye rolled. Ron knew if he was in that situation he'd wait until they set up some defenses to be set up, so obviously his clone would do the same. He couldn't really blame everyone for being so jumpy though.

Clone Ron manfully refrained from eye rolling while the group's attention was on him. "I know, I'll wait until we set up some protections and more people are in position before opening it. But it's really strange, I found absolutely no magic, except for the portal itself."

"Maybe they isolated this room from magic because they were afraid the Ritual of Ascension would link up with their pocket world?" Hermione suggested. The group looked thoughtful at that idea. It's possible.

"Well, shall we get started?" Ron prime suggested. When everyone seemed agreeable, they started making their way in.

Sirius, Hestia, and Tonks took first position, being the trained aurors of the group. They made their way toward the door, and began setting up a few transfigured barriers they pulled from their battle bags as cover in case there were enemies on the other side of the door.

Meanwhile Bill, Harry, and Hermione were casting a series of spells designed to reinforce the walls, ceiling, and floors. They included structural integrity and strengthening charms so enemies couldn't easily bust through to attack; privacy charms, so they couldn't be spied on from the other side; and obfuscation and repelling wards, so that people who were just passing by would be less likely to pay attention to the room and what was happening in it.

The rest of the group arrived just as they were finishing up with their assigned duties. Ron, being the one free, had stayed by the portal to let them know it was okay to come through.

After the group discussed the plan on how to proceed, everyone got in their places. Ron's clone would open the door, while everyone stayed behind their barriers. Those who were capable of creating clones had a few extra available in case it turned into a battle.

Ron asked if everyone was ready. Everyone verbally acknowledged they were prepared. Ron nodded to his clone. The clone flipped the lever, and the four foot wide door creaked open.

"I don't hear any movement or sounds. I'm going to peak my head out." The clone reported. Everyone held their breath. The clone looked out the door, pausing as he looked around. "There's no one in sight. It looks like it's just as abandoned as inside the room. There's dust everywhere, no footprints. Oh, that's weird."

"What's weird!" A couple people explode out when the clone didn't say anything further.

The clone looked at the group as if they are overreacting to his casual statement. 'In such a tense situation he's messing about with people's emotions. He's looking to get popped prematurely.' Ron thought to himself. 'Then again, it is me. So I'm messing with myself? Huh. Clones are weird.'

"Well, the corridor beyond is made of stone, but there's all these…well, they look like dead tree roots, coming out of the ceiling. It's just weird that so many roots would dig their way through the stone. I mean, is the building underground? But it seems like we have fresh air. And I can see faint reflected light down the corridor. So, it's weird." The clone responds.

Everyone in the group looks at each other, to see who voices their suggestion first. Ron clears his throat. "So, I'll have my clone follow the corridor toward the light. After he gets a peak, he'll pop and I'll let you all know what I've found out. Sound good?"

There were no disagreements from the group, so Ron's clone made his way down the corridor. Ron remained silent, waiting for the memories while watching as the group talked quietly among themselves.

A few minutes later the group stopped talking when they noticed Ron close his eyes in concentration. When Ron was done assimilating the memories, he opened his eyes and started narrating what he'd seen.

"I walked down the corridor, as quiet as I could. The whole place is dusty and deserted all the way. The light I saw was reflected moonlight from a large opening. It looked like a window without the glass. It was a full moon, so there was a good amount of light. It looked like the remnants of a city. The city looks like it's been in ruins for years. There's no sign of humans, or anything else moving about. But the creepy thing is that it looks like those tree roots are everywhere. The ones in the corridor are only the size of a finger, but the ones around town are bigger. Some were as big around as an arm, or leg, but there were some that were bigger around than three people."

There were looks of consternation on everyone's face. These roots didn't seem natural. What kind of plant grew that big? Was it more than one plant? Did the plant roots grow after the ruins were abandoned? Or was it part of what caused the ruins to be abandoned?

"After seeing the city like that, I was curious about the roots. My clone cast a spell to identify what kind of plant it belonged to. When the spell hit the root, nothing happened. If it wasn't identifiable, I should have gotten back a null or something. But it's like the root just absorbed the spell. Something about that creeps me out more than anything, it's almost like it ate the magic. So I think we should be really careful about casting our magic around these roots. Either they are immune to magic, or they eat it somehow. That's the only things I can think of." Ron concluded.

Everyone pondered the possibility of a plant that eats magic. There would be nothing they could do directly against such a plant that just absorbs their magic. Scary.

"Is it just me, or does anyone else think we should go back through the portal until the sun is up before we go exploring?" Ginny asked. When everyone focused their gaze on her, Ginny blurted out, "What? I'm just saying what everyone should be thinking!"

Ron put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "No, you're right Ginny. We should be well rested and have the sun in the sky when exploring further. As far as we can see from the ruins and lack of spells, no one was actually alerted to our opening the portal. So we can probably rely on the defenses we've put up for the rest of the night."

Upon seeing Ginny's sigh of relief, George stepped up to her other side and placed his hand on her other shoulder in a brotherly fashion. "Gin's got the right idea. There's less chance of meeting zombies in the daytime than night, right, Gin?"

Ron quickly stepped away from Ginny. Ginny has refused to watch anymore zombie flicks after that first one scared her so much, and Ron wanted no part of putting a match to the powder keg that George was currently playing around with.

Sure enough, seconds later Ginny took advantage of the target George was painting on himself to divert her attention and a running hexing battle was staged. George running from and shielding the painful looking hexes coming his way from his irate sister.

Ron just watched the battle, amused. 'This is just one of those things about wizarding culture that I had to get used to.' Ron thought to himself. 'From the books and fan fiction I was of half a mind to think that Fred and George's pranks and creations were a nasty form of bullying. But because of magic, wizarding kind don't exactly think that way. Because of magic they are, firstly, more robust than muggles. It actually takes a lot more work to damage them physically. An example was Seamus blowing up his feather while learning the levitate spell. A muggle whose face ate an explosion like a firework would, at the very least, have been disfigured for life. Going blind, or actually dying from the explosion is not outside the realm of possibility. But Seamus was just fine.'

'Second, with magic, practically all the effects are reversible almost immediately, so it's not anything permanent. And throughout their schooling all kinds of accidents happen anyway, like Seamus exploding his feather in his face while learning the levitate spell. Magical kids just learn to expect crazy things to happen to them because of their wonky control.'

'And finally, Wizarding culture is so steeped in magic that the powerful and/or clever inventors of spells are genuinely looked up to, even if the spells they use or invent are nasty. Tom Riddle found acceptance and even followers among the Pureblood when he showed his power. Severus Snape gained acceptance in society when he showed his skill as a brewer, and that's not even including his self invented spell, Sectumsempra. Nasty spell for a nasty wizard, but wizarding culture respects someone who can invent their own spells.'

Once the battle had played out, Ron could see that Ginny felt much better, not as nervous or frightened. Ron still wasn't sure if that was the effect George was going for or not. And George was certainly not talking, not with his teeth grown into tusks the way they were. A few moments later, and George was hopping back up off the ground, as cheerful as ever.

Now that the tension was broken, Ron watched as the group consensus was to set up some alarms, on the off chance that anyone showed up, and to shelve more exploring for the next day. Thinking back to the scene he'd seen though his clone's eyes, Ron couldn't help but feel something nagging at the back of his mind. Some connection to what he'd seen that he couldn't quite bring to the forefront of his mind.

Finally Ron just shrugged inside and joined everyone in heading to bed. It would probably come to him soon after he stopped actively thinking about it.

* * *

The next morning after breakfast found the TRG gathered once more on the other side of the portal. While Ron had been eating he'd enjoyed listening to the increasingly outlandish theories of Fred and George. 'Those twin's minds are wired to thrive on the unusual, that's for sure.' Ron laughed.

The group had decided not to do anything so cliché as to split into smaller groups as they went to explore the ruins. The defenses they'd set up the previous night at the portal room were undisturbed so they decided they would move out as a group to explore. Ron left a few clones in the portal room to keep an eye out while reading; and to pop in case of any message from home or unusual happenings there.

Ron watched his brother, the junior curse breaker of the group, and the trained aurors take the lead as they slowly walked the halls of the building the portal was in. They had conjured some floating lights to follow them as they explored, since there was no lighting in the building, and aside from the one window, no openings to the outside. They were moving down the corridors slowly, so they could cast detections spells, to find any traps left behind.

When they arrived at the window Ron had seen last night, everyone took several minutes to look out at the ruins the view afforded. Looking down, they could see they were a few stories up from the rest of the ruins. The buildings they could see were made out of stone. They couldn't see anything past the root riddled buildings to see the surrounding environs. The place was just…quiet. Towns and cities always have sound in the background; it's just a part of human life that's usually completely ignored until it's obvious by its absence.

After everyone had their fill of looking out the window, they continued on down the hallway. They could see some doorways further down. Ron kept a wary eye on the small roots dangling from the ceiling. He hadn't forgotten how his magic had no effect on them. The wizarding world is full of plants that move to ensnare prey, so their seeming docility really gave him no comfort.

They arrived at the first room of the corridor. Their detection spells once more came up negative. There were no protective spells, no traps, no locks. The less magic they found, the more Ron had a bad feeling about this place. How can a magical nation that created a pocket world in order to escape the threat of magic being sucked out of their world end up being here, with some ruins devoid of magic? Something had to have happened.

When they couldn't find any traps, they opened the door. Inside was what appeared to be a meeting room, large enough to fit 20 or so people at the table in the center. The wooden table seemed to have aged many years, but was still intact and solid. However they treated their wood before crafting seems to last, even though magic wasn't present to preserve it.

After finding nothing of interest in the room, they closed the door and continued down the corridor. They found three more similar meeting rooms with nothing of interest before they arrived at a T intersection.

The right hand corridor ended in double doors. The left hand corridor ended at some stairs going up. Sirius and Hestia volunteered as the rear guard while the rest of the group explored the room behind the double doors. Ron left a clone with them.

When the double doors were opened, it revealed a large space. Sending in some of the floating illumination balls revealed they'd found a library of sorts. Row after row of shelves stretched back into the darkness.

After some time of looking at the shelves, Hermione shook herself from her trance. "With how ancient this place is, and judging by the lack of preservation spells, no one touches the books until we figure out a way to preserve them." She glared fiercely at the twins in particular. "I don't want any of my books to be destroyed before they can be saved. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am." George gulped.

"No touchy the books, roger that ma'am." Fred couldn't help but quip despite looking well threatened and cowed at her fierce protection of the books.

After a few more longing glances at the books, Hermione joined the rest of the group back in the corridor. They would come back to the library once they'd explored some more and made sure their base on this side of the portal was safe.

Ron and the group continued and made their way to the stairs. Once more finding nothing amiss, they climbed cautiously to the next level. There was at least one more level above the floor they were on, so they set a guard at the stairs once more.

As Ron explored down the corridor with the rest of the group, he saw many rooms that seemed to be offices. In each of the rooms there were work desks and cabinets that looked like they were full of paper that had long since rotted away. He didn't find anything of interest, but he was feeling a bit morbid, looking at the abandoned evidence of a people that had long since passed on. All those people had once been part of a mighty nation that had many people all living their lives.

Who knows how long ago this was? Chufu found remnants of these people 5000 years ago. At that time, the pyramid and remnants Chufu found were already ancient. How much of the true history of the world had been hidden? Modern society liked to believe that they were the pinnacle of human evolution, that no one had ever built anything like they had. That no one had ever learned as much or advanced humanity as much as they had.

But here was evidence of human civilization that tens of thousands of years ago had once encompassed the entire world. They'd done everything that modern society had done, and more. They'd been so advanced in magic, using that as the basis of their technology. Magic, something the modern world didn't even believe in.

Thinking about the enormity of time, and how even such great nations fell in the past rocked Ron's mind and beliefs. He no longer felt that modern society was a bedrock that would always be there to support man in their exploration and growth. The civilizations that man built over hundreds or thousands of years can be destroyed by the actions of one mad man in an instant.

As the group was reuniting at the stairwell, Ron made an effort to shake the gloomy mood his thoughts had taken him to. At first it was difficult, until Ron started focusing on the interactions of his group with each other. Fred, George, and Sirius, always quick with a joke to lighten the mood. Remus, Emma, and Hermione, studious and lovers of knowledge. Dan, Harry, Tonks, and Hestia, forthright people of action, and loyal. Xenophilius and Luna, dreamers and believers in the possibilities of the future. Bill, adventurous curse breaker but consummate family man. Ginny, who loved life and living.

The grand scope of civilizations and mankind could take care of itself. These are the people that make his life enjoyable. Let others chase after the unrealistic world goal. World Peace? The Greater Good? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or one? None of that means anything if a person doesn't have something to fight for.

Would he sacrifice himself so 5,000 unknown people across the world could live? Probably not. He's not that unselfish. Would he sacrifice himself so his family could live? In a heartbeat.

It's definitely not heroic, but Ron never claimed to be heroic.

But looking at his people, he started to feel a little bit lighthearted. In spite of the creepy dead civilization, he had his little island here.

They made their way up to the next floor. The stairs didn't go any was a small landing, only about 12 foot by 12 foot with a door opposite the stairs.

When they opened the door, they found a large open space in the building. It looked like the entry hall. The front doors to the building were wide open, and they could see the ruined city outside the doors. Creeping in through the open doors were a few roots the size of a human thigh. Roots were draped all over the walls, and poking through the roof.

When they checked, there was, again, no magic. The roots here also ate any diagnostic spells they cast on them.

Now that Ron had a close up view of the larger roots, he could see they looked withered, aged. Like it had been a long time since they'd had any nutrients.

Ron joined the group huddle where they discussed what they would do next. They hadn't really discovered anything yet. Should they continue to explore the city, or put up defenses and a fidelius and study the library first?

Eventually they decided they would at least look outside the building in the immediate area. They could then decide on the area of the wards and fidelius.

They exited the building. Ron was looking for any signs of life, or enemies they would have to defend against. After a few moments, he looked over and saw that Luna was fixedly staring at something. She mumbled something too low for Ron to hear.

He moved over to nudge Luna's shoulder. "What was that Luna?"

She pointed at what she looking at. Ron looked over, and saw the biggest tree he'd ever seen. It towered over the city. Its sheer size put Ron in mind of tales of the world tree, Yggdrasil. No leaves adorned its branches, though, and it didn't look alive.

Luna repeated what she'd mumbled before. "It's really old. It was really hungry at one time, but now that it's already borne fruit its purpose in life is done. So it's already on the way out."

Ron hummed to acknowledge he'd heard what Luna said, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the tree. Something about the tree, and the way Luna said that the tree had been really hungry once, gave him a shiver of dread that ran down his spine. He was really glad the tree was no longer hungry. He didn't think it would bode well for them if it was.

Off to his left he heard Sirius give a low cry for attention. Turning and running toward him, he saw that nobody was in danger so Ron slowed down to a walk. Sirius was standing at a waist high wall that was at the edge of a cliff. It looked like the ruined city is built into the side of a mountain.

Looking down where Sirius was pointing, he saw two figures in the forest at the foot of the mountain fighting. Their fight had apparently caused several of the large trees to fall, creating a clearing that they could witness the fight. The two combatants were dressed in black, the pants ended at the calf, the shirt to mid-forearm. They wore flak vests and sandals. And they had headbands that had metal plates.

Ninjas.

Ninjas from the Naruto anime.

One of the combatants ran through some hand signs and spewed fire out of his mouth, while the other ran through some hand signs and spewed water out of his mouth. Where the water and fire met, steam explosively burst around them.

They moved aside from the explosion, and starting fighting hand to hand.

Ron noticed how quick they were moving. He wasn't sure, but they seemed to be a bit faster than he could move, even with his cultivating The Running Man that focused on speed.

Ron was feeling very confused at the scene in front of him. 'How the hell are there Naruto ninjas in this place?!' He looked back at the giant tree towering over the ruins. 'Could it be? Is this the tree that sucked in all the nature energy and consumed the blood of thousands of people that produced a fruit that Kaguya ate to attain godhood? She was the progenitor of chakra in the ninja world in the Naruto show. What the hell is going on here?'

'This is really freaking me out. How is the Naruto world here? How do I just happen to come into the Harry Potter world, and get a system that just happens to have Naruto techniques and bloodlines for sell? And it just so happens that the Naruto world is connected by portal to the Harry Potter world. Something is definitely fishy here.'

Looking down at the ongoing battle with the rest of his group, Ron started to run through what he knew of the ninjas of the Naruto world. 'Ninjas are fast, observant, and stealthy. They work in groups. They have jutsus that-'

'Wait. They work in groups. I only see two fighting down there. Where are the rest? And we can't assume that those two don't also see us up here, or sense us. They could just be staging a distraction to keep our attention while their other members sneak up on us. I might be reaching here, but who knows how real ninja operate? I sure don't, I only watched a freaking T.V. show!'

"Hey everyone! I think the best thing we can do right now is to go back to the building and set up our defenses and the fidelius. We have no idea what's going on down there or if they have friends that are watching us right now." Ron interrupted everyone watching the fight. "And as fast as they are, I don't fancy fighting them in the open with just spells right now."

With Ron's warning, the group suddenly had purpose. They worked in concert, following the same procedure they'd done previously while setting up the group fidelius and defensive wards.

Within 15 minutes, they were set up around the ritual circle and casting the fidelius.

The vertigo from a successful casting overtook Ron's senses. He patiently waited for Remus to share the secret.

 _"The Tomb Raiding Group's base in the Elemental Nation's pocket dimension is in the ruined city under the tree."_

Ron felt much better being under a fidelius in their building. Ron started working with some of the others to clear up the ritual circle and clean up the entry hall of their building. Not even 10 minutes after they had finished casting the fidelius, Sirius signaled from the entryway that there were people outside.

When Ron peeked out a window, he saw a trio of ninja poking around. The ninja were looking at the footprints they'd left on the ground. The footprints that led directly to their fidelius hidden building. Crap. The ninja would be able to figure out they were somehow hiding here.

Their defenses kept any sound they made in the building from traveling, so they were able to coordinate.

"They have a likelihood of finding our hideout." Ron stated. "We should probably capture them, question them, and Obliviate them, before releasing them so they don't even remember we're here."

After a bit of discussion, the group agreed to capture them. They'd all seen how quick the ninja could move, so the group was split into three, one group for each ninja. The first one of the group was assigned to transfigure the stone at their feet to catch them so they couldn't move. Three others were assigned to send stunners to each ninja. One directly at them, one to the left, and one right in case they dodged. The last one of each group would send an incarcerous spell after them to tie them up.

Everyone was in position, ready to attack. Ron could see the ninja were getting more alert and antsy the closer they got to their position. Ron counted down, and everyone attacked at the same time.

Two of the ninjas were caught in the transfiguration, stunned and bound in rope. The last jumped back as soon as the attack started. He seemed to hesitate for a second to assess what he should do. Seeing how many attackers there were, he made the decision to flee. In just a second, he was already out of accuracy range of the wizards, outrunning the follow on stunners sent his way.

Ron couldn't allow him to flee and report to anyone. He bolted after him, pouring on the speed. This is what he trained for, speed.

The ninja made it to the edge of the cliff, and started running down, trying to make it to the forest before Ron could catch him. He'd surely get away if he made it there.

Ron didn't think any further, he jumped off the cliff. Falling past the ninja, he shot a wide area stunner at him, knocking him unconscious. But Ron, and now the ninja too were falling.

Ron cast a slow fall spell on the ninja, and the ninja began floating down slowly.

The ground was coming up fast for Ron, so he looked down, and began casting a slow fall spell on himself, a good 20 feet before he would have hit. Ron stumbled a little on the landing, the ground was rocky. Ron walked closer to where the ninja landed, casting a couple more stunners on him to keep him under. He tied up the ninja, before pulling his broom out of his battle bag.

Picking the ninja up was a chore, he was heavy with muscle. Ron noticed the headband identified him as a leaf ninja. So he was from Konohagakure, Naruto's hometown. Ron flew him up the side of the cliff to where the rest of the group was waiting for him.

Ron received a warm welcome.

"How dare you jump off a cliff like that!"

"Don't you ever do that again, Ron!"

"What were you thinking?!"

And a few slaps let Ron know his friends and family cared.

They got the ninja into separate holding cells, stripped of gear and immobilized, especially their hands. They didn't want them to be casting any jutsu or getting free until they'd gotten some answers about the world they found themselves in.

Hermione pulled out some veritaserum, and they prepared some recording quills to record everything they said.

Ron just hoped their translation charms would let them understand the answers.


	19. Chapter 19

Ron was sitting across from his opponent, looking them straight in the eyes. The important thing to remember is to not flinch from what he needed to do. He needed to keep his purpose in mind. Steadfastly he conveyed his determination to come out the victor over his opponent.

"Go fish." He confidently stated. "Ginny, do you have any catfish?"

"Yes." Ginny gritted out through her teeth as she handed her cards to Ron while he smirked back at her.

Ron was currently relaxing through a card game with Ginny, Luna, Harry, and Hermione on the train back to Hogwarts. They'd expanded the compartment to fit nearly their whole year from all four houses in one compartment.

Smirking in triumph at Ginny, Ron set aside his set of catfish cards, and continued playing while thinking over their discovery at the pyramid.

After they'd caught the three leaf ninjas, they'd interrogated them through veritaserum to learn the basics of the pocket world they'd found. Everything he heard confirmed it was a Naruto world. The land was split into different countries that had as their leader a Daimyo. There were ninja villages, called hidden villages, in most all of the countries, and the leaders of the hidden villages were called Kages. For Konoha it was Hokage, for Suna it was Kazekage, etc.

The ruins their portal was in was located south-west of Konoha in Fire Country, it was rarely visited except as a place that ninja occasionally pass through on their way to their missions. It was good that there wasn't high traffic. There was a better chance they could use wards to keep people away for now.

The interrogation had given them a brief history of the country and its wars. Konoha's leader, the Hokage, was Sarutobi Hiruzen. It seems it was about 8 years after the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, so little Naruto was 8 years old.

All these revelations just blew Ron's mind. He thought back to his first days here in the Harry Potter universe, and how lost he felt. His meta knowledge just barely gave him a life raft to keep moving and not break down, but he'd felt especially hysterical and loopy for a while. Thankfully he'd been able to calm down and find a purpose. But now he was feeling adrift again. All those questions coming back to plague his mind.

How did he get here? Who gave him his system? Why are different fictional worlds linked together?

His questions ran in circles in his mind; he was like a hamster running on the wheel. He wasn't getting anywhere no matter how much he fretted.

As Ron handed two dolphins over to Luna, Ron's thoughts went back to Naruto. He felt some sympathy for the little orphan. The guy had to fight and claw for everything in his life. Nobody really took the time to teach the guy, and he just keeps powering through problem after problem with determination. That's probably why he'd gotten such a fan base back home, he's the classic underdog that wins through sheer grit.

But sympathy and a faint desire to intervene in his life to help him was one thing. The sheer difficulty of doing anything for him made Ron give up the notion before it did more than pop up as an idea.

The logistics of it made it impossible for him to do anything. A 14 year old wizard outsider isn't going to be allowed to enter a militant and paranoid city like Konoha and start interacting with their little human weapon. Especially if it's anything like some of the fanfics and Naruto is deliberately isolated in order to engender more loyalty for the Hokage. Someone blundering into that situation would soon find themselves in a Torture & Interrogation cell.

So Ron had long determined there was nothing he could do to change Naruto's situation at this time. Not to mention among wizard kind he's not of age and so he's unable to go out in the world on his own without causing a ruckus amongst his family. Ron thought back to his summer after first year when he found those bone thieves and ended up grounded for the rest of the summer. Yeah, no way is he having a repeat of that. As capable as he is now at magic, it would just be too…troublesome.

Despite all the problems inherent with breaking out of the underage cocoon he's in, Ron kept having this fading desire to intervene in "canon" events of Naruto's life. That's what he gets for reading too many fanfics back in the day. 'Heck, judging by the fact that I'm not in canon Harry Potter world, the chances of this being canon Naruto are slim and none.' Ron ruefully thought to himself.

The important thing right now is to not be reckless in acting out. The most important matter is to keep their portal hidden and protected so no ninjas come in to murder everyone he cares about. Naruto himself was a big softie, always doing the talk-no-jutsu to turn tormented enemies into friends. But even he would kill when needed. And a lot of other ninjas have a lot more "Kill now, question never" mindset.

So the group had made the decision after questioning the ninja to Obliviate them and send them on their way with minor compulsions that would fade in a day or so. They could have "vanished" the ninja, but they feared that would just bring attention to their area and more ninja would show up to do more in depth investigations. The less attention they get, the better off they'd be. Meanwhile, with the extra time and lack of enemy activity, they could set up some truly horrendous defenses. Which is what the adults were working on now, while all the school aged kids returned for a quality Hogwarts education.

Ron relaxed once more into the game and conversation. Letting his worries move to the back of his mind.

"Gran told me originally they were planning to restart the Tri-Wizard tournament, but that got banished in a hurry when Lord Black showed the Wizengamot just how many students died back in the day." Neville was telling Millie while they were sitting next to each other and sharing a Herbology book between them. "She told me that they replaced it with something else, but she wouldn't say what it was. Said it'd be a surprise when we got back to school."

"You got to wonder about that Neville." Ron jumped in to the conversation. "I mean, if it's something to replace the Tri-Wizard, then it's likely going to involve other countries, yeah?" At the affirmations, Ron continued. "Then why are they keeping it a secret from us just to make a big to do at Hogwarts? I mean, whatever it is has got to have spread throughout whatever countries they are talking with. I bet the students of other schools already know. So why do we have to wait until we get to Hogwarts to hear the news?"

"It's Tradition, Weasley." While several students voiced agreement with Ron, one blonde Slytherin sarcastically interjected her opinion. "Despite any changes that have been happening, for the better, these past few years, the Wizengamot are filled with people who are still mired in Tradition."

"Hmm, you have a point there, Greengrass." Ron stated while rubbing his chin in thought. "But then, just when did that tradition start? And why?" At her icy glare, Ron held up his hands in mock defense, "Hey, I'm just wondering!"

"The tradition is lost in the mists of time." Luna dreamily stated. "Way back, when a certain bee won a dance, and was given all the honey. That bee decided that since he had the honey, he got to tell people when and where they would get their portion of the honey. And then the others forgot it had ever been any different, thus becoming a tradition."

Ron thoughtfully looked at Luna. He remembered that the name Dumbledore had something to do with bumblebees, so Luna was probably talking about Albus' "dance" with Grindelwald. "Dumbledore, huh?" Ron stated to Luna.

Beaming at him, Luna nodded affirmatively.

"Wait, you're saying Dumbledore started that?" Neville exclaimed. Many of the students seemed stumped to find out that the Headmaster announcement tradition was so new.

"Well, it makes sense." Hermione stated firmly. "Despite the appearances he put up, he was a thoroughly political animal. As headmaster he could condition all the students to look to him as the one with answers. Then, when they joined the Wizengamot, there he was as Chief Warlock, the one with answers."

Ron was getting the impression that Hermione didn't have much respect for one Albus Dumbledore. It made sense, seeing as how in this dimension Albus had pretty much gone senile but was still in power and making _plans_ that ruined their life their first go around. If it wasn't for their miraculous second chance, they'd be in the belly of a dementor right now. So Ron couldn't blame her for feeling a certain animosity to the man for making their lives so difficult.

After Dumbledore had his "epic battle" with the Voldemort possessed Harry Potter that the Room of Requirement had created, Dumbledore had turned himself in. When St. Mungo's had given him a look over, they'd found he'd been senile for a while, and he'd been remanded to a comfortable room for the rest of his days with no outside news coming in, to avoid riling him up. After having achieved his "victory" Ron guessed the man had felt he'd achieved everything he needed to in life, and shortly after passed away.

'Just goes to show that time makes fools of us all.' Ron thought about Dumbledore.

The train soon arrived at the station, and everyone debarked, making their way by carriage to Hogwarts. The little firsties were soon sorted, and the feast begun.

Ron was enjoying the festive atmosphere, joking around with Ginny and Luna at the Ravenclaw table.

Finally the feast came to an end, and Headmistress McGonagall stood up to give announcements, now that all the students had their bellies full and were more likely to pay attention when not distracted by hunger. Looking out at all the students, Headmistress McGonagall gave a small smile.

'She's become more and more relaxed over the past couple of years.' Ron thought. 'Evidently having only one job and no longer having Dumbledore delegate his responsibilities to her has allowed her to relax.'

"Well, I'm glad to see everyone enjoy the feast, and welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. First I have a few housekeeping announcements. Hogwarts weekends will occur twice a month throughout the year. Be sure to turn in your permission forms to your Heads of House if you want to attend."

Quite a few students cheered the increased number of weekends they would be allowed out of the castle. Being stuck inside in one place all winter was enough to drive anyone crazy.

"House Quidditch team try out dates will be posted on your House Notification boards for all those interested. For all those who don't make the team, there will be an amateur league for you to play and practice in. The signup sheet will be posted after the House teams are formed."

Headmistress McGonagall smiled proudly as the Quidditch fanatics in the hall cheered, she was a fan herself, after all. Things were looking up for them ever since McGonagall allowed the formation of the amateur league. Previously, only seven students per house had been able to play each year, and they always had priority access to the field. Now, there was a second field and everyone who wanted could play.

When the cheers finally died down, she continued. "And finally, I'm sure a lot of you have heard rumors of something big happening this year. The original proposal by several members of our Wizengamot was to bring back the Tri-Wizard Tournament this year. It was a contest that was hosted between three schools, Hogwarts, Beauxbaton, and Durmstrang. The idea was to bring the tournament here this year."

Headmistress McGonagall paused to let the whispers die down. "Some of you may have already heard about it, or done some research. The reason the tournament was cancelled in the first place was that the student death rate became outrageous. And I'm not talking about just the contestants. Audience members and judges included, many people senselessly died in the ridiculous thing. Thankfully saner heads prevailed and the original plans to bring the tournament back were scrapped."

"However, the reason the Tri-Wizard Tournament was even brought up was as a means for Wizarding Britain to reach out to other countries and establish international ties. After the turbulent times of the previous war, we had been cut off from much of the international scene. How that could be accomplished by putting other country's citizens in mortal peril escapes me. Nevertheless, the need to establish international ties was still present." Pausing a moment to wryly look at the many bored faces of students, Headmistress McGonagall continued. "Yes, I'm aware that politics is boring. Continuing on. There was still the need for some event to encourage more ties with other countries. So it was proposed to have a magical version of a Triathlon."

For those students who didn't know what a Triathlon was, Headmistress McGonagall explained and then continued the announcement. "And as you know how wizards like to one-up each other, the idea of the event grew. The current form will be three separate events over the next year. Each event will last a week, and will follow the stages of the Triathlon. The first event of a water obstacle course will be from November 20th to the 26th. The second event, an aerial race course will be held from February 19th to the 25th. And the final event will be a magical obstacle course ran on foot from June 4th to the 10th."

"Now the reason each event will be a week long, is that unlike a muggle triathlon, where everyone races at the same time, each contestant will go individually and be timed. The best time wins. And furthermore the race contestants will be split into age brackets. The students that are ages 16 to 18 at the time of the competition may apply to participate."

Headmistress McGonagall had to pause at this point to allow the students to get their excitement out of their system, as some were excitedly talked about joining, while others were sad they couldn't join because of their age and pouted about it.

"That's all for announcements. I hope to see all students strive to make the most of their time here at Hogwarts and become the best Witches and Wizards that you can be. I'll now turn you over to your Heads of House." Headmistress McGonagall finished and exited the hall.

While everyone remained seated, the Heads of House called up their house's prefects to give them instructions. After which everyone but the first years and prefects were released to make their way to their dorms.

Ron enjoyed chatting with Luna and Ginny as they made their way to the dorms. As he completed his evening routine, Ron wondered whatever happened with the goblet of fire. Thankfully it wasn't pulled out of storage for this event. Bloody forced contracts.

* * *

Over the next several weeks Ron enjoyed the building atmosphere of excitement among the student population. Every few days a new article would be published in The Prophet about different wizard athletes or celebrities announcing their participation in the first Wizard Triathlon.

A surprising number of muggle movie actors and actresses were closet wizard and witches, it turns out. Seems not all wizards or witches ignore the muggle world, especially when there is a much larger audience and fortune to earn in the muggle world than in the wizard world. But with the excitement brewing and the possibility of a stage in the wizarding world, it was instant PR for them.

Meanwhile the students participating in the Triathlon were practicing in the Black Lake. Several of them had become friends with the giant squid, but there was one older Slytherin who just seemed to rub the giant squid the wrong way, and the squid went out of his way to toss him out of his lake every time. No one could figure out just why the squid didn't like that one student. More than once Ginny dragged Ron and Luna to the lake shore to watch the antics. Fred and George started a bit of a betting pool each time, students guessing how long the Slytherin could last in the lake before being thrown out. Fred and George actually gave him a bit of the profits, which is probably why he kept going back to the lake to try again. That, and to practice his water based battle tactics for the Triathlon.

With the upcoming water based event as well as the discovery of the Naruto world and the future possibility of fighting ninjas, Ron had to make some decisions on his training. He scrolled through the system shop, and found tree climbing as well as water walking techniques to begin training in. Ron paid the price so they would be open to the guild for purchase as well. He then sent a notice to all guild members that the techniques were available, and it would be a good idea to train them soon.

The ninja they'd caught had only been Chuunin, middle class ninja, and their overall speed was almost on par with his. At the moment Ron didn't think he'd fare too well in hand to hand combat, even with Chuunin. The techniques and skills he'd copied from dojos around the world were designed for basic human level sports, for the most part.

Sure the martial arts were based on killing arts, but long years of only using them for dueling and sport have made them weak against the skills of active ninja that hone their skills for killing, as opposed to points. Not to mention they weren't built around the increased speed and strength that chakra gave the ninja. And there were still Jonin and Kage level ninja that would likely curb stomp him in a heartbeat.

It was important that Ron start making preparations for future encounters and dangers, and it looked like that would most likely be ninjas. 'Heh, I've heard of the battle for supremacy between pirates and ninjas. Looks like this one will be between wizards and ninjas instead.' Ron laughed to himself.

Which is why after thinking about it for the first couple of weeks after school started, Ron finally decided to call in Spartacus to talk about the situation with the Naruto world and ninjas.

House elves were among the best magical beings at stealth, and his Elf Friends had their magic abilities boosted quite well. Ron had already made his Elf Friends members of his Guild, and boy were they racking up the points. The hard working nature of elves didn't change even after getting their Significant Name boost, so they could set and accomplish quite a lot of goals.

To make some preparations for Spartacus' briefing, Ron set up his memories of the anime from his previous life. It may not be 100% accurate, but it was better that Spartacus have some idea of what ninja are capable of before deciding if he'd accept the mission.

"Reporting as ordered, sir!" Spartacus announced after popping in.

"Thanks for coming so quick, Spartacus." Spartacus grinned and nodded. "I've been thinking about this the past couple of weeks, and I've finally decided to offer you this mission, if you choose to accept it after the briefing."

"I'll take it, sir." Spartacus immediately replied.

Ron supposed he should have expected nothing less from the brave and bold elf. "Okay. I won't try to talk you out of going on the mission, but the danger level is extreme. Let's go over the briefing material first and then we can talk about mission parameters and safety." Ron stated soberly.

"I've already told you a little about my past life, and how certain media imitated life here." Ron had found that Spartacus was a good listener who he could trust to keep his secrets. If he didn't have anyone to talk to about some of his doubts and issues around this new life, he'd likely burst. Or do something overly crazy like try to take over the wizarding world and build himself a harem of all the hotties. Spartacus acted as a mix of a sounding board, release valve, and confidant for Ron.

"Well, you know how the pocket dimension we found had a land of Ninja and Samurai?" At Spartacus' nod, Ron continued. "That pocket world pretty much imitates a show we had back in the other dimension called Naruto."

Ron then went on to show Spartacus pensieve memories of several of the fight scenes from the anime. He described what he knew of Konoha, the ninja arts, especially Fuinjutsu which would be the ninja equivalent of ancient runes, and the ninja's paranoia and militancy. He described how fast and strong their middle rank ninjas are, and how dangerous and sly they can be.

"So you see how dangerous they can be to our society of lazy wizards, let alone the muggles who are blind to anything out of the ordinary. I also don't think the martial arts we've been practicing will hold up well if we have to use it against them. So we desperately need information about them."

Ron got up and started pacing as he laid out the necessity for Spartacus' mission.

"First off we need to determine if you are even able to get close to the town and observe them without being spotted. Keep in mind some of the ninja specialize in sensing abilities. Even the ones who don't are able to sense enemies to some extent. If, and I really mean it, only if you are able to get close to them without being sensed by either their ninja or their Fuinjutsu arts, should you attempt to gather information about their techniques, skills, training, and fighting styles."

"If you are able to sneak in and copy their library, and plant those recording devices we used on the dojos before, then we'll be able to use that in the Rooms of Requirement to really learn how to counter these ninja in case they become aware of us. Besides, I don't really know how long it would be until everyone else in the group decides they want to explore this pocket world we've found. It would be best if we could offer the Guild training so they can survive exploring the world if they choose to do so." Ron concluded.

Spartacus looked pretty excited at the challenge Ron presented him. "This will be good practice for the Elf martial arts I'm building, sir."

Ron smiled and nodded at that. "They will be formidable, I'm sure. I'd like you to take at least one more Elf with you as backup. Maybe have them sit further back from you to bail you out if necessary? Not that I'm doubting your abilities, Spartacus. I'm just very cautious about their abilities and I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I'm touched, sir." Ron swore he sounded a little sarcastic, cheeky bugger. "We'll make sure not to be seen, you can be assured of that."

Ron nodded, reassured that Spartacus would be cautious in his surveillance. "I'd like you to finish watching my memories of what may be possible from the anime. And, if you happen to see a little orphan Naruto having it tough, maybe help him out just a bit without putting yourself at risk."

Spartacus saluted and continued viewing Ron's memories, while Ron continued on with his daily routine.

* * *

The first day of the Triathlon competition finally rolled around. Spartacus had been making good progress at spying on the ninja. He had to avoid getting close to quite a few of the higher level ninja that could sense him, but as long as he was near a crowded area around those ninja, they assumed he was among the crowd, so he had ways to sneak around them. For now things looked good. Ron was accumulating fighting styles for the Room of Requirement to emulate, and the ninja were not yet aware of their existence. So Ron was relieved and able to focus on schooling, training, and his daily life as a wizard. Which included being excited for the Triathlon event.

Many of the students who either didn't want to compete in the Triathlon, or couldn't due to age, were allowed day passes to attend under adult supervision to volunteer as gophers for the event. There were so many wizards and witches showing up from around the world that the ministry needed all the help they could to keep things running smoothly.

Ron was scheduled for the Thursday slot to attend, so the first day of the competition he joined his friends in the Great Hall as they listened in on the Wizarding Wireless Network as the announcer described the competition.

The ministry had set up a water race course that started on the shore of a lake. The competitor would have to swim underwater through the checkpoints. Each check point would have an obstacle that the competitor would have to overcome to be given directions to the next checkpoint. The obstacle was everything from magical puzzles, to staged creatures they would have to defeat. Underwater basket weaving has got nothing on underwater Transfiguration, so this competition looked to be interesting.

Ron wasn't sure if this event would be repeated in the future, but he was enjoying the novelty of it. He started making notes of the challenges the contestants were faced with. Maybe he could get the Room of Requirement to imitate the course so he could try it out?

Ron also noticed that Hermione and several Ravenclaws were making notes of the spells the competitors were using. 'No doubt the Ravenclaws would be competing later in the library to see who got which book first. Or they could use teamwork to tackle the tough task?' Ron chuckled to himself.

Ron turned to Luna and Ginny. "Hey, girls. You want to go to the RoR later and test our spells out underwater? It'd be good practice." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Luna giggled, while Ginny called him a prat. But they both agreed to join him. Harry and Hermione had overheard his suggestion, and Harry seemed to like the idea of getting Hermione in a swim suit. 'Married couples. What can you do?' The group made their way to the Room of Requirement for an evening of fun and frolicking under the waves.


	20. Chapter 20

Ron entered the great hall early Thursday morning ready to eat. He looked around and noticed that just like every other day so far this week there were a large amount of students up and about earlier in the morning than usual. It was the week of the first task of the triathlon, and the students that would get a day pass to go do "volunteer work" for the Ministry were all excited to get a chance to enjoy the spectacle.

Today was the day that Ron had signed up for, so he too was excited to be able to go explore. All week long the atmosphere among the students had made it seem like a festival. All attempts by the teachers to keep the students grounded and focused on their course work had failed. The excitement had just kept bubbling up.

It didn't help the student's ability to focus that the students participating in the event hadn't had a chance to compete yet. The 16-18 age bracket were scheduled to begin participating the next day and carrying over to Saturday. So the students who would be competing had been in a frenzy all week to learn all they could at the last minute to prepare for the event. That attitude had spread among all the rest of the students, until the professors could hardly go a class without having to answer questions about spells that could be used in the event, much to the professor's frustration.

Ron briefly wondered if the Ministry had actually planned ahead and made sure the young student aged group went last, in order to make sure all the kinks were worked out of the system, before they risked injury among the students. There's nothing like having young students injured or killed in a Ministry sponsored event to garner the respect and trust of their constituency.

Ron sat himself down across from Luna and Ginny and started making himself a hearty breakfast. "Morning Ginny, Luna. And how are the Belles of Ravenclaw doing this fine morning?"

Luna just giggled in response while happily building herself a pancake house.

"Just fine, Ron." Ginny replied while keeping an eye on her best friend's construction project. "I'm looking forward to today. It'll be fun to see what everyone's been talking about all week."

"I heard Bertie Bott has a booth set up for a contest. The most accurate guesser of flavors at the end of the week will win a prize." Luna interjected while setting up the second level of a tower on the side of her house. The pancake house was getting really impressive.

"And what do you get if you win?" Ginny asked.

"A year supply of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean."

"Huh, I guess that's a prize?" Ron stated in between bites. Ginny and Luna both knew by now that Ron didn't enjoy the beans. Ron had been jazzed at trying the famous beans at first, until he'd gotten a tar, oak leaf, and then toe jam beans all in a row. On his first try. Now he wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole. He wasn't adventurous enough to keep torturing himself.

"Attention students." Headmistress McGonagall projected her voice from the head table. "All those students who will be volunteering today have one half hour to assemble in the entryway. You will then make your way to the gates where you'll portkey to the Triathlon site. If you miss your portkey, you're out of luck. Be sure to be on your best behavior. If I get any reports of Hogwarts students being involved in any shenanigans, you will not enjoy the staggering amount of detentions you will receive. You have been warned. Otherwise, enjoy your day, and expect to write a report of what you learn today."

Headmistress McGonagall had given the same speech every morning this week to the batch of students volunteering for the day. Ron had wondered just why they had to write an essay, but he figured that to a dedicated educator, the idea of giving a student a free day went against the grain, even if they weren't goofing off. Even though they were already working hard to make up the missed day of classes it didn't matter. Too much fun was bad for student discipline, so they must be brought back to earth with essays.

"Got everything you'll need for the day?" Ron asked.

"Nope, let's go back to the tower first." Ginny responded while Luna nodded her head in agreement with Ginny.

Ron ate one last piece of bacon before joining the girls on the trek back to the tower. As they climbed the steps, Ron reflected that he was quite pleased with his physical fitness. In his past life the amount of stairs they climbed on a daily basis would have been quite daunting. But here, with magic, even the laziest wizards didn't have too much problems climbing all the stairs. It made sense now how an 11 year old girl like Hermione was able to navigate all these stairs while carrying so many books. Magic was the answer.

Once they arrived at the dorms, Ron quickly took care of brushing his teeth, making sure he had his BTP (battle transfiguration pouch), both wands, and his galleons. Everything he'd need for the day. Not that he was expecting danger, but better he had it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

All set for the day, Ron joined Ginny and Luna as they made their way down to the entry hall, chatting with the girls on the way. Once in the hall they joined the gaggle of students waiting for their adult supervisor for the day to arrive.

Five minutes before the half hour deadline given by the Headmistress, a wizard and witch walked into the hall. They introduced themselves as Roy Bender and Tammy Walken, their supervisors for the day. They quickly called role, and once it was confirmed everyone was present, they immediately herded the group out to their portkey point.

Upon arrival at the triathlon grounds, Roy and Tammy immediately started splitting the group of students up according to where they would work for the day. Ron, Ginny, Luna, and several other students were assigned to assist the healers for the day. As Ron was leaving the arrival area, he noticed another group of students arrive via portkey. Looking at their school uniforms, they belonged to St. George's Magical Studies School.

Ron had recently learned that there were three tiers of magical schools in the world. Schools like Hogwarts, Beauxbaton, and Ilvermorny were considered tier 1 schools. They were the most expensive, and they offered the most complete education. Most of a country's higher ups attended these schools. It was almost impossible to become a director of an office in the ministry if one didn't attend a tier 1 school. It wasn't just about the education either, it was the connections one made with schoolmates during their time that allowed them to be the elite of society.

When Ron had discovered this information, whatever lingering pity or respect Ron might have had for Snape vanished. For whatever reason, be it the benevolence of Dumbledore or whatever, Snape had been incredibly lucky to be admitted as a poor half blood to Hogwarts. Even being placed in Slytherin offered him untold benefits. Him and Riddle both.

Sure they had to suffer a bit of bullying, but the opportunities available were plenty, if they could only get past their ego and pity trips. Even if the upper years and his peers made Snape's life difficult at first, he could have endured and helped those below him, making connections and friendships with people that could help him later in life, due to feeling indebted to his help and friendship.

Snape especially screwed up how he handled Potter and Black. When he saw how Potter was intrigued by his friend Lily Evans, he could have invited them into the group and made more friends and made his life easier. Instead he selfishly and bitterly tried to keep his only friend to himself and made enemies of the two boys who would have grown into influential Lords in their society. And he continued to fight and deepen the animosity throughout their school years. So much for Slytherin cunning.

The tier 2 schools are trade schools. They usually focus only on one profession, be it potioneering, runes, arithmancy, transfiguration, etc. The students who attend these schools usually end up being the shopkeepers and crafters in wizarding society.

The tier 3 school is the bottom rung. These schools are free and run by the ministry, only teaching the bare minimum needed so that a wizard or witch won't lose control of their magic. It is for the poorest of the poor and those who aren't lucky enough to receive a scholarship to either a tier 1 or 2 school. The graduates from these schools usually end up being the cheap laborers in the magical world, or move into the muggle world, having barely more control of their magic than squibs.

With how few wizards and witches end up in Hogwarts compared to the tier 2 and 3 schools, it's really no wonder the vast majority of wizards and witches could do nothing more than run and cower from Riddle's Death Eaters. Sure, a Hogwarts graduate has the education to defend themselves, but they are usually woken up at 3 a.m. and outnumbered 8 to 1 in their encounters with the Death Eaters. The rest of the magicals simply don't have the spell knowledge to defend themselves.

When Ron learned these aspects of the magical world, and how someone who was born into a Tier 3 family almost never has the opportunity to raise themselves or their children into a higher tier, he was appalled. Thousands of people, always stuck at the poverty level. Never even given an opportunity for their children to live better lives. Well, that wasn't a state that Ron wanted to see remain. But at the moment he simply didn't have enough capital or influence to make society change.

But now, seeing the students from St. George, a tier 3 school, right in front of him, Ron realized he had the perfect opportunity. He wasn't able to make society change from the top down, but maybe he could start with the bottom? With his system and guild, he could offer the students of tier 2 and 3 schools the opportunity to learn more than their school would ever teach them. They could network with other guild members, and have hope to actually make something of their lives.

Ron thought it was a shame that he'd already wasted most of the week that he could have been talking to these people and recruiting for his guild. Thankfully there were still two more events that he'd have more opportunities to find these students and offer them the chance to join his guild and change their future.

He then told Ginny and Luna his idea, and that he was going to leave a clone with them to help them while he went recruiting. Ginny agreed that there needed to be some actual bodies left at the healers station to cover for clones accidentally popping, but they were enthusiastic to help, and decided to send clones with Ron to help recruit.

By sending clones the girls would be able to experience wandering about to their hearts content and enjoying the festival, instead of only being stuck working. In order to be fair, Ron would switch out with Ginny and Luna after a couple of hours. Ron would return and take over real body duty, letting Ginny and Luna wander around to recruit with his clone.

Throughout the day Ron met many students from tier 2 and 3 schools. Ron stayed deliberately vague about exactly what the assistance would entail, since he couldn't come out and tell them about the guild on their first meeting. But he kept their contact information in order to contact them later. First he would consult with the rest of the guild, to see if they had any ideas on how to fold the new potential recruits in and provide support. Or if there were easy solutions that he didn't know of. Then he would have his elves check up on them, to determine what kind of people they were.

There had been a few students that Ron could tell had a huge chip on their shoulder because of their lot in life. Ron couldn't exactly blame them for being upset; he would be too in their situation. But if they are the type of person that can't let go of that inner ball of anger, jealousy, and hate, then he didn't want to have them in his guild. They would never be happy with the opportunities they receive. They would always be spiteful, and they would likely spread that misery around, causing strife among the guild. That was a complication Ron just didn't need.

So if his elves found that they were the type to lash out and spread the misery, they wouldn't get the opportunity to join the guild at this time. They would just have to seek out opportunities on their own as his people worked to change the way wizards and witches are educated.

* * *

Since Ron and the others didn't have any experience working in the medical field, the healers mostly used them for two simple tasks. The first use was as a pair of hands to fetch and organize potions. The ministry had several potioneers working throughout the day making and delivering potions to the healer's tent. So Ron would take the delivery and stock them in the correct shelf, while updating the current tally.

When a healer needed a specific potion, it was their job to make sure to deliver the needed draught straight to the healer's hands as fast as possible, and update the tally. If they started getting too low on any potion, they would send a message to the potioneers to make more of that potion.

The second task was the task of triage, or determining the level of severity of wounds and deciding who got first call on the healer's skills. If two wizards came in at the same time, and one only had a broken arm while the other had a leg off and was bleeding out, then it was a sure bet the one bleeding out needed help first to stop the bleeding.

Most of the time one of the healers would be supervising the volunteers to make sure they were making the right calls, but occasionally there would be a large influx of injured, swamping the healers, and so Ron had to make a few calls on his own.

One case in particular stuck out in Ron's mind. Ron had just finished running some potions to the swamped healers when a witch and wizard walked in. Well, staggered in is more like it.

The wizard's left arm was severed at the elbow, and he had it tucked under his arm stump. He had his other arm around the waist of the witch, almost carrying her, as she had a couple of broken legs, but she was not bleeding.

Ron could guess that the bloke was sweet on her when he demanded Ron get a healer for his sweet Maude right now!

"Here now, why don't we get Maude up on a table and off her legs for a bit." Ron stated while helping move the witch to a waiting table. "Now, if you'll come this way, sir, we can get you seen to." At the very least he needed to stop the wizard's bleeding, if not reattach his arm.

"No!" The man exclaimed. "I'll not be seen to until I'm sure Maude's alright!" He demanded.

The witch, Maude, hissed at him. "Nigel, dear, go see the healers now. I won't tell you again."

"But, dear, I can't rest easy until they've helped you!" Nigel vowed.

"I'll be fine for the moment. You're bleeding pretty bad and need to be seen to."

"No, I'm not. Tis but a scratch." Nigel stated.

"A scratch? You're arm's off!" Maude exclaimed.

"No it isn't."

"Well, what's that then?" Maude asked, pointing at Nigels arm under his stump.

"I've had worse." Nigel flatly claimed.

Ron's mouth had slowly dropped open as he watched the ridiculous scene play out. He wasn't quite sure what to do about the overly stubborn wizard who apparently lived as a Monty Python skit. Thankfully one of the healers came out and stunned Nigel at that point, just to keep from having to argue with him.

Maude then turned to look at where the stunner came from. "Oh, thank goodness you were here, Healer Gilliam, to take care of Nigel."

Healer Gilliam smiled back at Maude. "Yeah, we've learned how to take care of Nigel over the years. I swear, every time he needs healing, he refuses to budge until you've been checked first. Even when both his legs are off."

Maude sighs, "If he wasn't so sweet the rest of the time…I just don't know why he gets so stubborn. Even when I'm perfectly fine, he still pulls the same thing, over and over."

"Don't worry too much, dear. I'll just take Nigel back to put his arm back on. One of us will be right back to work on your legs, don't worry."

"Thanks again, Healer Gilliam."

Healer Gilliam then levitated Nigel back to his station, leaving Ron alone with Maude. Ron turned to her, and half asked, "So, when he said he's had worse?"

Maude sighed deeply. "He wasn't lying. At one point he's had all four limbs off. Still demanded I get a checkup before he'd accept treatment. Stubborn man." She fondly complained.

Ron began to wonder if he just became a part of someone's humor skit in some other universe. 'The only thing to do is stay busy and don't think about it.' Ron told himself, quickly shrugging off the existential crisis hovering at the back of his mind in favor of stocking potions.

'Well, if there's one thing I learned from this, it's that the guild could use some healers in its ranks. I'll see if Sirius as "Lord Black" can contact some of these guys soon so they can be on call.' Ron finally concluded.

* * *

Saturday evening rolled around and Ron found himself in Gryffindor tower in the midst of a very large party. His twin brothers, Fred and George, had done very well for themselves on the swim leg of the triathlon. He didn't know how they coordinated it, but they ended up with the exact same time. Pretty impressive for not having gone at the same time.

Ron sat in a circle with Ginny, Luna, Dean, Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati, playing some silly wizarding game called spin the bottle. It wasn't anything like the muggle version of spin the bottle. This version was just a card game where whoever the bottle landed on was the dealer for that round.

Ron thought it was a pretty tame game for a party. Wasn't the Gryffindors supposed to be party animals? Looking around, Ron noticed that some were playing gobstones. Some were playing exploding snap. Off in one corner some of the older students were listening to music. Not dancing with each other, just listening to music.

'Man, if this is the hard partying house, how lame are the rest of the house parties? It's not like Ravenclaw has really had anything to party about since I've been there.' Ron snorted in amusement. 'At least they have butter beer here.' He sarcastically laughed.

Just as Ron was about to excuse himself to head back to his dorm, Fred popped up and announced, "Okay, we have enough recorded to fool the security charms. George!"

"Fred!"

"Bust out the good stuff and let's get this party started!"

And there was a resounding roar from all of Gryffindor house. The fire whiskey was busted out. The girls threw off their outer robes and wore hot little black dresses and the dancing kicked off.

Spin the bottle actually became spin the bottle. Kisses were taken and given. Forcefully given in the case of Seamus jumping on Dean when Dean was the unlucky target of the bottle.

And then things got crazy.

The drunken wizard equivalent of "Hold my beer and watch this" ended up with some extremely weird transfigurations and animation charms.

Little dick bunnies were still being found hopping around the Gryffindor common room the next day. Some even escaped the Gryffindor tower and made their way to the potions lab of all places.

Flying octopuses delivered several drinks at one time to each group. Ron still couldn't figure out who was pouring the drinks, or if the octopuses were.

Color charms redefined the word "psychedelic" for Ron that night.

Colin Creevey decided that he needed to start taking his art seriously by exploring upside down photography. He was still stuck to the ceiling the next day, his camera cradled in his arms as he snored loudly, according to what Ron heard.

'All in all, it lived up to the hype.' Ron decided.

* * *

Ron finished the last page of the book he was reading, "Me, Myself, and the Inner Eye" by N. Tsuyen. He closed the book and sat back in his chair, thinking about what he'd read.

When he had talked with Hermione about the possibility of using Divination as a basis for creating long range sensors, she had flatly told him how useless Divination was, and that there was nothing useful in it. Ron hadn't taken it to heart, though, considering her previous life's education.

Hermione had had to deal with the fraud Trelawny. She was incredibly stressed from using the time turner just enough for classes, but not enough for extra rest. And then she'd been more focused on the practical need to keep Harry alive for the next several years. Despite her studious nature, there was only so much she could do under all those constraints.

So Ron had been spending time reading Divination books to try to get at the root of the magic that allowed diviners to gain knowledge of happenings far away as well as future possibilities. So far he couldn't conclusively say that Divination was bunk. There were many cases throughout history (according to the books he'd gotten from Hogwarts) where a stellar diviner would gain notoriety for their accuracy. In some cases they would have an apprentice that was just as good, in other cases they would find no successor.

But Ron has yet to find a case where the great diviner would have progeny that would have the same skills. This, to Ron, is a suspicious point. If the divination magical talent is inborn, then there should be _some_ cases where their progeny gained the same abilities. But there wasn't any.

Of course there is always the possibility that they hid these abilities deeply in order to not gain the attention of greedy wizards and witches. How valuable would it be to enslave a bloodline that could consistently create great diviners?

Ron still had no definitive answer to whether the divination skills are inborn, or created spells that never got passed to apprentices. And now that he has finished pretty much all the sources from the current era and gotten no answers, it's time to turn to the ancient records. Hopefully the records from Chufu or the Elemental Nation refugees will give him something to go on. Something to build on.

Otherwise, he's going to have to start entirely from scratch. Ron was still hoping there was a wheel out there he could use, instead of having to invent it. Because he had no confidence in his ability right now to create a whole new branch of magic.

Ron turned to his catalogue of books to look for the next book. 'One way or another, I will get this done' Ron vowed.

* * *

Inside an infirmary in Cairo, on a bed, lay a tall, brown haired man, unconscious. He had bandages covering the left half of his face, including the sunken socket of his left eye that indicated an eye was missing.

Sitting in chairs near the bed sat a pair of siblings, both blonde. The male had a stern grimace on his face as he gazed at the man on the bed. The female sibling had tears running down her face, as she hoped for the man in the bed to wake up.

The doors to the room opened, and in stalked Number 6. Dressed in all black, Kathryn radiated barely restrained fury as she gazed at her unconscious brother, Tom. "What happened?" She growled.

Jethro ran his hands over his face wearily. "We were ambushed. The artifact was extracted smoothly. Everything was going well. But when we arrived outside the wards, suddenly spellfire rained down on us from three directions. Tom was the only reason we got out of there mostly in one piece. He cast that whirlpool spell that sucks all the magic in, but he was too close, it exploded on him. If he hadn't cast it though, we all would have died there."

"Bastards!" Kathryn exclaimed, her hands clenched tightly into fists. "When I find out who they are…"

"Kathryn." Something in the tone of voice made Kathryn look away from her brother. She'd never seen such a hard expression in Jethro's eyes before. "Sawtooth was there. I saw him myself."

"Number Four." Ground out from between Kathryn's clenched teeth. She'd never felt such rage before. Sawtooth is the hatchet man of Number Four of the Shadows. "I was willing to play the part, be the dutiful Number in the Shadows while they played their games. But they've gone too far. I will tear them apart with my own hands." She vowed.

Jethro and Bella looked at each other in concern. Bella spoke first. "Kathryn, the oaths…"

Kathryn waved the concern off. "As long as I don't betray the cult, those oaths won't kick in. How else do you think Number Four could get away with attacking us? As long as he gets the artifact, it still benefits the cult in the end." She sarcastically replied. "I didn't care if they played their games of dominance. Of office politics. But this. This demands reprisal. And they. Will. Pay. In blood." She gritted out. 'No matter what' she vowed.


	21. Chapter 21

Ron stood at the ready, wand in hand, on the training field across from a man with a cheesy bowl cut and garbed in a green spandex suit and orange leg warmers. There was no smile of "Youuuth!" evident on Gai's face, only a look of concentration.

Ron started the match while they were still over 20 meters away from each other, casting chains of standard spells at Gai. Stunners, leg-locks, cutters, jelly legs, confundos, piercers, and everything in between. Gai easily side stepped everything casually, while assessing his opponent.

Ron realized he was getting nowhere fast. All the standard spells that wizards use for dueling wizards were too slow to matter to ninjas at any sort of distance. The spells are slow, easily seen, always go in straight lines, and are pitifully easy to dodge for those with the speed and reflexes of a jonin.

Ron switched to area of affect spells. Bombarda, wide area flame spells, and water canons were among the pitifully few in number area of effect spells that wizards had created. Again, Gai was able to easily dodge. The spells moved too slow to the target, allowing him to escape easily from the area. Ron noticed Gai kept his eyes on Ron's wand, and realized his wand was acting as a cheat for Gai. Every time a spell came out from his wand, his wand acted as a pointer to let Gai know the exact direction the spell would be going, thus increasing his safety margin of dodging.

Ron tried bracketing the man in explosions, but Gai notice what he was doing and kicked his speed up a notch, easily slipping out of the danger zone. Gai was simply running circles around Ron.

Ron decided to try something different, and tried to tag Gai with his nearly invisible homing beacon. Even though Gai didn't see a spell coming his way, the way that Ron pointed his wand at him suggested he'd cast a spell, so Gai kept on the move, not allowing the beacon to land.

Ron was frustrated nothing was working. He realized that even though he was silently casting, there must be a subtle emphasis he was putting on the cast that emphasized exactly when he caste the spell, allowing Gai to dodge easily. Ron tried to add in fakes and lessening the emphasis he was using on his casts, but he'd never practiced it, and so it barely did any good.

Eventually Ron got a beacon locked onto Gai from the large number he'd been casting, and from sheer luck. Ron immediately switched to stunner seekers, casting them as fast as he could. The surprised look on Gai's face when the stunners started to follow him made Ron happy, thinking he would get him soon. But Ron's happiness didn't last long. Gai kept ahead of the stunners, easily dodging them because they were so slow and he could see them coming a mile away.

Gai then changed tactics, making his way closer to Ron, determined to get in melee range and end the fight, now that he was finally casting something that might possibly, in large numbers, overwhelm him.

Gai was circling around Ron, spiraling in closer. 10 meters. 5 meters. Gai dove in, lashing a kick at his wand arm, causing Ron to stop his casting to dodge backwards.

Ron suddenly blacked out.

* * *

Ron woke up, to find Ginny, with a big grin on her face, and Luna standing over him.

"What happened?" Ron asked while pulling himself up into a sitting position.

Luna leaned closer, peering intently at his face. "You lost track of your stunners and Gai sensei was kind enough to help you find them." Ginny just started laughing at Ron and at how Luna phrased her answer.

A ghost of a smile crossed Ron's face. "Yup, that's Gai. A very kind sensei." Ron dryly commented. Despite being only a simulation, the Room of Requirement seemed to have a sense of exactly who Gai was, mainly thanks to Spartacus having gathered many hours of recordings of the crazy man's challenges to his "eternal rival" Kakashi.

Every second in battle counts. Even in battle with wizards who are only slightly stronger and faster than baseline humans, a second of distraction is enough time to be killed. In a battle with ninja who are orders of magnitude faster and stronger than baseline humans, being stunned is tantamount to dying.

Groaning at having gotten himself "killed" on his own spell, Ron got to his feet. "Well, let's review my pitiful fight" Ron commented. He started making his way to the observation tower, where the rest of the group waited while Luna and Ginny had gone to enervate him.

Everyone who was in the know about the Room of Requirement and the pocket dimension they'd found were naturally guild members. Originally, the discovery of the pyramid, the treasure found, and the library were only going to be shared among the original Tomb Raiding Group. The discovery of the pocket dimension and the capture and interrogation of the ninja changed all that.

After they interrogated the ninja, they discovered just how large the pocket dimension was. They learned of the various nations, and just how many ninja, samurai, mercenaries, and bandits there were in that pocket dimension. The TRG quickly decided their small group would be unable to handle the situation.

Right now both sides of the portal were covered by the fidelius, so no one could stumble on it. But if they wanted to do anything more than keep the portal secret, they needed manpower. Or rather wizardpower. Witchpower? Well, they needed more bodies to be able to build a fortress to guard the other side of the portal for when they intended to interact with the people in the pocket dimension. As well as having enough people to create a business in trade.

Many guild members were excited at the prospects available in this new, hidden land. New trading partners and the prospect of wealth. New trade goods. New knowledge from their libraries. New foods, cultures, vacation spots, etc. The possibilities seemed endless.

And if they were going to interact with the people in this new land, they would need to be able to deal with ninjas. Otherwise, traversing the land just wasn't safe.

Spartacus hadn't had any problems setting up the recording devices in Konoha to capture recordings of the ninja practicing. But he hadn't been able to sneak his way into any of the libraries. The accumulation of ninja knowledge and techniques were closely guarded military secrets. Those secrets had a higher than usual security.

Spartacus was able to make copies of various academy education and training manuals by sneaking into student's houses at night. But anything genin rank or higher were not allowed out of the library. The ninja simply spent time in the library reading, and then went out to the practice fields to practice.

This paranoid practice made it a bit more difficult to learn the ninja's secrets. So even though Spartacus wasn't able to gain access to the training manuals, at least they had recordings that the Room of Requirement could turn into training dummies for the guild to practice with. Ron had distributed the recordings of ninjas in action amongst the guild members with mini-RoRs so they could learn how to deal with the ninja. Ron also set up the guild store with the ability to cheaply sell mini-RoR trunks to the guild members so Ron himself wouldn't be annoyed with requests to make mini-RoRs all day long. He had better uses of his time.

Ron entered the observation room on the tower overlooking the practice field where Ron had his bout with the simulated Gai. Looking around Ron noticed quite a few smirks on faces turned his way. It was a Saturday morning in the middle of December, so there was a large crowd of guild members from all the houses present, including his twin brothers, the incarnations of chaos monkeys. So of course he had to deal with a good deal of joking at his expense before they could get down to reviewing the action.

When the chaos monkeys finally settled down, Ron had the room replay his fight. Occasionally someone in the group would murmur a comment.

"No matter how many times I see it, I can't believe these guys move so fast."

"Amazing predictive ability on the attack vectors. He doesn't let himself get boxed in. As long as he sees your attack, good luck hitting him."

"We need better spells and reflexes to take these guys on."

When the simulation ended and the mutterings came to a stop, Ron got everyone's attention.

"You can see what difficult opponents these ninja can be. I've already gone over the ninja rank structure with you before, and this particular opponent is a Jonin, near the top of the ninja forces. Now I don't want you to get any mistaken ideas, at the speed and power he was at, he was maybe at 30%." Ron paused his speech as the group expressed their disbelief. "I say 30% because this individual has a particular ability to ramp up his abilities in serious fights, far beyond what you see here. We don't have any recordings of him doing it, so it's difficult to simulate it. But believe me, he can go a lot faster."

Ron again waited out the moment needed for the wizards and witches in front of him to come to terms with the sheer magnitude of how much Gai outclassed them.

"Now remember, I'm not trying to discourage everyone here with foes we can't possibly match up to. In a moment, I'm going to go fight him again, but without magic. Keep a close watch." And with that, Ron jumped out of the observation tower, sliding down the side of the tower with a weak application of wall walking.

Ron set up the simulation again, Gai appearing across the training field from him. This time, Ron didn't use magic, instead he sprinted to close in on Gai in a taijutsu fight.

Ron opened up with a series of punches and kicks, always trying to keep up combos going. Gai, being the expert on taijutsu that he was, easily blocked his attacks. Ron noticed that even while defending, Gai was using his blocks as a form of counterattack, doing damage to his arms and legs while blocking. It would definitely leave a bruise, if Ron didn't have magic to speed the healing up after the fight.

After a few minutes of defending to judge Ron's ability, the simulated Gai suddenly switched to offense. The surprise kept Ron off balance for a moment, and Ron took a few body blows before he pulled his defenses into place. Now the match was reversed, with Ron solely on defense, doing his best to keep from being knocked unconscious.

The match continued for a few more minutes, blows flying at breakneck speeds, before Ron was knocked down. Ron conceded the match, and the simulated Gai backed off. Both Ron and Gai acknowledged the end of the spar with the ninja convention of forming the seal of reconciliation. Among allies at the end of a spar it was basically to show there were no hard feelings among allies and friends and that the spar was over.

Certain standards of conduct and politeness were always necessary in society, but among societies where everyone carried lethal weapons, or were trained as lethal weapons, these rules became even more necessary. In societies like the wizarding world or the ninja world, bad blood between individuals or families could easily devolve into outright bloodshed at the drop of a hat (or kunai). Such conflicts could easily turn into a multi-generation long feud between families.

With the match over, Ron sprinted back to the tower, climbing the outside and jumping in the window. The chaos monkeys gave him a cheer, starting the group off in clapping for his performance. Ron gave an overly theatrical bow to join in the tomfoolery.

"Now, to answer the unasked question of how I got so fast. The answer is, of course, Magic!" Ron again bowed overly dramatically to the boos and hisses his answer got. "No, but seriously. I noticed that not a lot of guild members were taking advantage of the opportunity to find a body cultivation technique. The way that I got so fast and so strong-." Ron jumped over to where a great big table was. He lifted it with one hand, no magic. "Was through the practice of a body cultivation technique. Every one of you can get one that is best suited to you through the guild store. It does take a bit of work to gather the points for it, but it is entirely worth it, I assure you."

"With magic alone, I struggled to do anything more than inconvenience a Jonin ranked ninja. With the speed and power that the cultivation techniques provided me, I was able to train up to be a challenge. And I've only been practicing a couple years. That ninja has been practicing over 20 years. Now if we learn new types of offensive and defensive magic to complement the enhanced speed and strength these cultivation techniques will give us, we'll be able to handle these ninja so much easier." Ron encouraged everyone.

Ron noticed there were thoughtful looks on most everyone's faces. Since they were all wizards and witches first, they hadn't cared so much about getting a body cultivation technique before. They'd cared more about their magic. But now, seeing as how there was a small world full of individuals that could demolish them even with their magic, they were seriously considering just how important physical strength was in future battles.

"All of the mini Room of Requirement trunks being sold in the guild store will come with the recordings of the ninjas and wizards." Ron continued. "So you can carry it with you where ever you go. And even at home you can try out new spells, practice fighting against ninja or wizards of all skill levels, and train to be the best!" Ron enjoyed the looks of excitement on many of the faces. Enthusiasm for shared hobbies was strangely addicting. "Anyone have any questions?"

Ron spent the next half hour answering what questions he could. Many times the answer was a simple "We don't know" because he only had limited knowledge of what the Naruto pocket dimension was like.

He showed the group the list of ninja, by rank, the Room of Requirement could simulate for them. The group then spent the next several hours mock fighting the simulated opponents. There was nothing like personally fighting to determine just where they stood, skill wise, in relation to their opponents.

They soon discovered that with their magic they could defeat most all of the academy students, and about half of the genin ranked ninja. But the chuunin and jonin ranked ninja were beyond their abilities. He still didn't have any simulations of kage ranked ninjas doing kage ranked battles, unfortunately. The realization that there were even better ninja than the jonin out there was a sobering effect. Even with their magic they couldn't go against chuunin, let alone jonin or kage.

When they tried to engage in taijutsu fights, even academy students were too much for them. Ron remembered how the Naruto show would classify ninja according to their skill and deadliness from S-rank being the highest at kage level, A-rank being jonin level, B-rank was chuunin level, C-rank was genin level, D-rank was academy student, and E-rank would be civilian level.

From watching his fellow students and guild members, Ron came to the conclusion that the average wizard could only amount to genin level, C-rank, even with magic. Without magic they were no better than civilians. This all had to do with the fact that ninja train their bodies so their speed, reflexes, and strength (once up to a certain level) trumped any advantage magic gave to wizards.

But once his guild members trained up their physical abilities and researched new spells to complement the increased speed, strength, and magical prowess gained from cultivating, well, they would become a force to be reckoned with.

Ron was quite pleased that his demonstration seemed to have encouraged his guild members to be more interested in the cultivation techniques. Now that they knew there were opponents out there that their magic alone couldn't overcome, a fire was lit in their enthusiasm to improve. Over the next several months Ron would watch as his guild members worked harder to earn points and purchase the best cultivation techniques suited for them.

There was also a healthy side market developed among the guild members in innovative spells that were designed to be used in ninja battles. Area of effect spells that were quick to hit the target area. Lightning fast spells designed to be difficult to see were tested among the group. Spells like the fire whip was altered to become Jedi Light Sabers. Totally badass.

Then there were spells of a more defensive nature. Someone noticed that ninjas liked to chuck lots of sharp pieces of metal everywhere. So they designed some magnetic spells that would take care of waves of kunai or shuriken flying in their direction, making it easier to avoid the flying metal death.

Everyone learned just how sneaky ninja could be, and how they could disguise themselves and get close to their target before attacking. So one bright guild member created a detection rune amulet to keep guild members from literally being backstabbed. It would create a localized physical shield to stop someone from slipping a knife in their kidney and give them a chance to react to the attack.

Ron was quite pleased with his decision to make the guild. It had been a little rocky at first with all the adults wanting to take the reins of power away from him. But all the new innovative spells that the guild members came up with proved that many minds all working on solutions were better than one individual doing it all himself. Ain't no one got time for that.

Especially Ron. There was only so much he could do in a day, even with clones. And Ron was busy learning all he could. Pouring through the books in his ever expanding library. Doing school assignments for both his magical and muggle education. Pouring effort into his three cultivation techniques. And all the while he was working hard to master wandless magic.

The absolute need for wizards and witches to have a wand to cast spells was a great weakness in his mind. A little piece of wood that can easily be broken is all that stands between most wizards being C-rank genin class, or E-rank civilians noobs. That is a weakness he doesn't want to bring into his future battles.

Besides the weakness inherent in wielding wands, he'd already been noticing how his wands were struggling to keep up with the amount of magical power he could pump through them now. The wands were designed to be used by the average wizard, and he was already outstripping Dumbledore or Riddle's power level. Pretty soon he'd either have to upgrade his magical foci, or learn to do without altogether.

Ron had already determined that when he mastered wandless magic, adding in a suitably strong magical focus would simply amplify his ability. At that point it would be a bonus, instead of being a near crippling flaw. He was already thinking of foci other than a wooden wand to use. Magical swords or daggers easily came to mind. They could likely channel more magic and serve the purpose of being a melee weapon at the same time.

Disarming a wizard wielding a wooden stick doesn't sound too dangerous. Trying to disarm a wizard who was swinging a magical sword that he could stab you with was a much more difficult prospect.

* * *

Sunday morning, February 19th, the first day of the second task found Ron again enjoying a nice brunch listening to the wizarding wireless as they talked about the beginning of the air obstacle race. Despite the sale of flying carpets being banned in Britain, there was no law against owning such a carpet. There certainly weren't any rules against enchanting a muggle vacuum cleaner to fly. In fact, there were no rules whatsoever against enchanting anything to fly. Which many a wizard or witch took advantage of to create their own flying device for the second leg of the Wizarding Triathlon to create a spectacle.

So Ron was enjoying the descriptions of all the things the wizards and witches were flying on to complete the obstacle course. Giant fans, desks, kiddie pools, a lego castle. Ron couldn't wait to see the pictures in the Daily Prophet the next day. It was bound to be entertaining.

Ron looked over to the Gryffindor table, and noticed that Harry and Hermione seemed especially relaxed this morning. Around this time in their previous lives they'd been under all kinds of stress and judgmental looks from everyone, and afraid that the tournament would end Harry's life. They seemed to truly enjoy not being in the thick of things this go around.

Luna was seated across from Ron, playing with her food as she usually did. Something about her simple enjoyment of constructing a snorcack farm out of pancakes made Ron smile. Ginny was seated next to Luna, focusing on the wireless' description of the second task.

Ron looked around the great hall, taking note of how everyone sat with their friends, or boy or girlfriends, instead of by house. Neville was sitting with Milly at the Slytherin table. Ron was a little surprised that they were still going strong after 3 years. He would have thought that as they grew older they would have broken up like any other teenage couple. But somehow they just kept growing closer. And Milly was really starting to grow into her looks. Along with working out, she looked like an Amazon, strong and wild. Since Neville was so much more in tune with his magic now, he seemed to be at ease with himself. Something of the earth magic, or whatever made him such a prodigy at Herbology, made him grow tall and somehow more solid. Not at all fat, he was solid with muscle. Ron could really start to see something of the young man who, in another life, would have stood up to Riddle, the world's Dark Lord, and dare to slice his great ruddy snake in half right in front of him with the Sword of Gryffindor.

Ron finished breakfast, and got up to leave and continue his training. Ginny and Luna seemed to have different ideas, though, as they intercepted him before he could leave the hall. Each grabbed an arm, refusing to let go until he'd agreed to spend the day hanging out with them; no clones allowed to substitute for fun time!

What could he do but acquiesce? So he was informed of what he'd need, and soon joined them as they made their way to the edge of the forbidden forest to make a snow fort and generally play the morning away. As much as he was focused on his training, his relations with his family and friends were equally important. So when the girls demanded little things like this, he was happy to oblige.

The only other important thing at the moment had already been taken care of. The members of the guild going to volunteer help at the Triathlon throughout the week already had instructions to find decent people among the students from tier 2 or 3 schools so they could meet and possibly offer them membership in the guild. The adults in the guild would be in charge of finding and inducting adults, while the younger students would find other young people.

Because the event was an international one, they would start making connections to other communities around the world. Eventually they would be a major international force. The world would be their burrito.

So, Ron enjoyed his morning off and just played around with Luna, Ginny, and anyone else who wandered by.

* * *

Later that week Ron enjoyed his day at the Triathlon. Unlike the last time when he was assigned to help the healers, this time he was assigned as a gopher for the supervising officials that were assigned around the course.

The supervising officials had two basic jobs during the week of the competition. The first job was to keep an eye on the obstacle course and fix it if something broke. If something happened to damage it, they were to signal the starting line to wait until they'd fixed it before sending the next contestant through.

The second main job was to keep an eye on the contestants, so if they got hurt, the officials would be there to send them on to the healer's tent. Ron found out early on that the entire course was set up with cushioning charms so the likelyhood of someone falling to their death was "minimal". But there were many cases of a contestant's self made flying apparatus failing, thus falling, or sometimes exploding, injuring the contestant in the process.

There were also a number of flying magical creatures that were included in the contest. Ron soon found out that the flocks of flying magical creatures, called Wolpertingers, took shifts harassing the flyers. The wolpertinger looked like a rabbit with wings and a long, cat-like tail. The male Wolpertingers actually had small antlers on their heads. They were quite cute.

Ron's job as a gopher consisted of flying a broom between the official's stations, checking up on if they needed food, drinks, more stretchers, or anything else. He was also assigned to bring food and water to the flocks of Wolpertingers.

Early on in his first year Ron had discovered that he didn't really like flying on a broom. It took him some time to admit to it, because in his previous life as a fan of the Harry Potter world, it was almost obligatory to be a fan of quidditch and broomstick riding. Ron quite liked being in the air, but he hated broomsticks. So he'd resigned himself to avoiding quidditch and flying altogether.

It was only when he'd merged souls with Ron Weasley and experienced the memories of the 11 year old Ron Weasley that he'd learned to appreciate broomstick flying. So, thankfully, spending all day on a broom flying around and running errands was not as torturous as it would have been if not for the memories of one 11 year old boy.

He was also glad he'd talked to the guild about recruiting before the event began, because he didn't get a chance to talk to much of anyone that day. He was kept too busy. He couldn't even find a decent place to hide and send out clones surreptitiously. So it was good that his guildies were out bringing in new blood.

He noticed over two dozen new students joined the guild that week. They were working their way up to the thousand guild member mark. Now that Ron thought about it, it was past time to institute some kind of messaging service among the guild. It would certainly help the poor students if they could message students from Hogwarts or adults for help with magic theory or spells.

The plans for scholarships for them were being considered, but there were some considerations about just how to change the system. If they simply offered scholarships to all the poor students to attend Hogwarts, Hogwarts would be overbooked with not enough teachers, and those other schools would be out of business, and the teachers out of a job.

So the guild was working on methods to uplift each school to a higher standard. Introducing more qualified teachers to make up for the lack in the tier 2 and 3 schools. The whole venture would be an enormous money sink for several years, until the tier 2 and 3 schools started pumping out qualified wizards and witches that could make money, or return to their alma mater to teach.

The sheer cost of elevating even one school, let alone the dozens in Britain, was another reason they were so happy to have found the pocket dimension. The wealth that it would bring in would help them in their endeavor to raise the quality of education among the British magical schools.

'But, where does it end?' Ron thought to himself as he was carrying a bag of feed for the Wolpertingers. 'Once we've managed to create a self sustained system of education here in Britain, then we'll need to start working on other countries too. This might take more than a few years to make the changes needed around the world.' Ron affirmed to himself. 'The more qualified wizards and witches there are, the bigger the brain trust will be in advancing magic. No more of this being stuck in the dark ages rut. I want to see it shine. I want the magical world to make it to Mars before the muggle world. Or maybe a joint effort? Recreate the techno-magic of the lost civilizations? Well, make it better at any rate. Their civilization came crashing down due to one madman. We should build it robust enough to never be threatened by one individual, no matter how powerful.'

* * *

After the day spent flying errands, Ron quickly found a messaging system in the store that he purchased and implemented for the guild. It basically acted as a forum/chat room/phone system. It was very expensive, but for the development of the guild, Ron thought it was worth the cost.

Ron watched as many of the student members of the guild befriended and helped the new members stuck at the tier 2 and 3 schools. They organized help to get them new wands, copies of books the Hogwarts students used, and decent equipment.

The new guild members were _enthused,_ to put it mildly. They saw a future opening up for them, a bright future.

Ron barely paid attention to the news of the upcoming third leg of the Triathlon. He was enjoying his life of training and teaching the new members too much. He was already ready for his OWLS and NEWTS tests. He'd made great strides in learning wandless magic. Soon he would have all the spells down silently and wandlessly.

He'd been practicing with the new spells the guild had come up with to fight against ninja, so he felt confident in their future prospects in the Naruto pocket world.

So of course it was while Ron was feeling so good that the other shoe had to drop midway through the last leg of the Triathlon.

Ron was woken up at 3 a.m. by someone roughly shaking his shoulder.

"Sir, wake up. Someone is attacking the pyramid. You need to get up NOW!"

Ron jumped out of bed, almost bowling over Spartacus, who had woken him. "What's happening Spartacus? An attack? Is it the ninja? They found us?"

Spartacus was scowling fiercely. "No sir. They are wizards, and they are attacking the wards around the pyramid. We only have a few minutes until they break through. We're trying to shore up the wards, but it's no good. They are failing."

"Can you take me there?" Ron urgently asked.

"Yes, sir, I can."

"Good." Ron grabbed his wand and BTP. "At the very least we've got to hide the portal room, and as much of Chufu's library as we can. These bastards are going to pay."

Ron reached out his hand, and Spartacus grabbed it, popping them to Egypt. It was a long distance pop, so he was in darkness for several seconds as they made their way. They arrived at the pyramid entrance.

Ron looked around, and saw only his elves attempting to shore up the defenses. They looked strained. Ron joined them at the wardstone, pumping in some of his magic to keep the attackers at bay.

Ron could immediately tell that there were a great number of wizards and witches attacking in concert. He wouldn't be able to keep the wards strong against them. Ron had no group able to counterattack from the outside to distract them from their concentrated attack on the wards, so they only had minutes at best before the wards would fall.

Ron made an alert in the Guild messaging system about what was happening, and what he was doing about it. Unfortunately Ron neglected to include an emergency messaging system that would wake all the Guild members. 'Something to add in the future' Ron hatefully thought with gritted teeth at the thought of losing their pyramid. 'These bastards.'

"Spartacus, help them hold the wards for a few more moments. I'm going to seal up the portal room and cast a fidelius on it so these bastards can't find it. When the wards fall, get out. Don't let them catch you. I'll meet you at the inn my parents are working at. I've sent out a message for the guild, they should meet with us up there when they get the message."

Ron then broke into a run to the pyramid, barely hearing Spartacus' acknowledgement of the orders. He made it to the portal room in record time. Once inside, he triggered the wall to close, then broke the device that opens it. No way will he let those bastards accidently stumble on his portal.

He quickly set up the wards needed for the fidelius, and started casting, putting all his energy and focus into the spell. Her poured more and more power in, until everything was brilliantly lit up from the spell. This portal room was very important to the development of the Guild and his future. There's no way he's letting it fall into enemy hands.

 _The portal to the Elemental Nations is hidden in a secret room in the Chufu Pyramid by Ron Weasley._

'Done.' Thought Ron as he felt lightheaded from the amount of magic he'd poured into the spell. 'Just in time too' he thought as he slid into unconsciousness as he felt the wards on the rest of the pyramid fall.

* * *

Outside the Chufu Pyramid, dozens of wizards and witches could be seen cleaning up the damage their attack on the wards had done. They were laying the basis of new wards and a new fidelius to keep what they'd captured theirs.

Number Six arrived after she received word on the success of the attack. It hadn't been easy to find the thread needed to pull in order to unravel the mystery hidden by the fidelius. But the unusual amount of people who kept visiting the same area in Cairo had raised a flag.

Another flag had risen when, upon investigating, they'd learned of no real reason for why the Potters, Blacks, Lupins, and Grangers would visit the Weasleys over and over.

'It's always the little things that unravel the whole.' Number Six thought in satisfaction while surveying her new pyramid. 'It's always the little things. And good things come in threes.' Three days ago they had finally caught Sawtooth away from his master. 'Caught, captured, and punished' she thought in satisfaction. 'And in a few days, Number Four will feel even more pain, making it the third good thing.' She smiled.

Number Six walked up to where Jethro was standing, supervising the laying of the wards. "Excellent work Jethro."

"Piece of pie, Ka-Number Six." Jethro stumbled over his words, mindful of the members overhearing him being too familiar with their leader. Everyone knew how close he, Tom, Bella, and Kathryn were, but he tried to keep it professional between them in public. Even though he desired to get closer to her, and he felt that she desired it too, the timing was never quite right. And they often had to dance around each other in public due to her standing as the Number in the Shadows. "What shall we do with our homing pigeon?"

"Keep him on ice for now." Number Six responded. "I've still got questions for him. After I get answers, then we'll deal with him."

Nodding in affirmation, Jethro gave orders to those who were guarding a thoroughly beaten man who had the glazed look of someone under the Imperius curse. They dragged the captive off to wait for more interrogation, the moonlight glinting off his red hair as he was chucked into an expanded trunk to keep him out of the way.

Looking around once more, Number Six smiled. Things were going her way. Soon she'd have her revenge on Number Four. And she had plans to make to take over the cult. Too long she'd been naïve enough to think she could sway the current leadership to give her more leeway to do what she felt necessary.

Thinking back on it, she scoffed at herself at the silly idea that she should _rely_ on _them_ to _allow_ her to change the world for the better. It took her long enough, but they opened her eyes. If she wanted to change the world, she had to make it happen. After so long of watching how the Cult did business, always snatching what it wanted from others, sabotage, and even murder. Well, now her eyes were well and truly open. If she wanted to do something, there is no _allow_ involved. She'd just have to make a way and take what she wanted.

Yes, it took some time but she finally learned what the Cult had been trying to teach her all this time.


	22. Chapter 22

Ron groaned as he woke up on the hard stone floor. His head ache was a sure sign of having exhausted his magic. Looking around the portal room that he passed out in from pumping too much magic into the fidelius, Ron checked the time. He'd been out for three hours.

Thinking about his actions, Ron really felt that he'd taken too big of a chance this time. There was an unknown enemy taking over their territory with numbers and skills also unknown. If he had been really unlucky they would have detected his casting the fidelius and found his location, breaking in and taking him captive or killing him.

Pouring all his magic into the spell until he'd passed out in a vulnerable position near the enemy had really been too reckless. In the end he still didn't have a lot of experience with high stress combat situations. He'd made the right decision to hide the portal room, but he'd been foolish to expend all his magic to the point of leaving himself vulnerable in an unknown situation.

Ron determined that in the future he would have to pay attention to leaving himself a path to retreat. Only as a matter of last resort should he stake it all. As angry as he was at the enemy for taking what he considered his and his guild's property, if he lost his life here to the enemy, his efforts to hide the portal room would have been a useless and foolish waste of his life.

Then where would his people be without their guild? What would his family feel if their son died for such a stupid thing? He had only started to enjoy this life; he wasn't ready to give it up yet.

Ron made his way to the entrance that he'd locked up before casting the fidelius. Seeing that it was still solidly shut reassured him a bit. He spent a moment to focus his hearing on the other side of the entrance. The ability to focus his senses wasn't quite on the level of an actual spell, but he did use a bit of magic to increase his sense of hearing beyond the human norm.

After spending several minutes listening, Ron determined that there was no one in the room directly outside the portal room. 'Whoever these bastards are, they don't seem to have caught on that I hid the room at the last minute. That should give us some room to work with on figuring out just who they are, and what we should do about these stinking thieves.' Ron growled to himself.

Ron knew there were lawless bandits, thieves, murderers and other criminals that lived on the wrong side of the law in order to survive, or just because they liked the lifestyle. He knew that having riches or treasures attracted the attention of the lawless. But he'd never lived that kind of life. He'd never expected that they would have attracted some group that would have the time, energy, and meticulousness to break their fidelius and wards in one go with no warning.

Despite the poor track record the fidelius had, like how it didn't work to protect the Potters when they used the fidelius when Riddle was hunting them, he had thought they were safe under a fidelius with everyone taking oaths to keep the secret. The Potters hadn't used an oath to make sure that Pettigrew didn't betray them. Ron and his group had all taken oaths on their magic. So just how had they been found out?

Shaking his head and refocusing on what he could do now, instead of questions with no answers, Ron moved to the center of the room.

"Spartacus. Can you reach me without alerting the enemy?" Ron said out loud.

Ron waited for a few minutes. Nothing.

Just as he was about to give up, Spartacus popped into view, then staggered on his feet. Spartacus looked like he was dazed and had expended some energy to get there. Ron realized it was the effect of the fidelius, confusing his senses and making it difficult to get there. It was only his bond with Ron that allowed Spartacus to find him. Ron quickly shared the secret with the Elf.

Spartacus straightened up to his full height, no longer confused by the fidelius messing with his senses. "You rang, sir?"

Ron snorted. Cheeky Elf.

"How is everyone?" Ron asked.

"Everyone is healthy, if a bit tired, sir. We were getting worried that it took you so long to contact us." Spartacus chided Ron.

"Sorry about that. I was so focused on pouring in as much as I could into the fidelius to make sure they wouldn't find it, that I spent too much and passed out. I've learned my lesson, though. It won't happen again. Good work on noticing the attack and holding the line until I could at least hide this room, by the way."

Spartacus nodded his head in appreciation at the recognition of their good work. "I let the missus' know you called before coming here, sir. They were especially worried. Only the bond let us know everything was relatively well, but still. The women worried." Ron and Spartacus shared a grin, acknowledging to each other, at least, that the way Spartacus' wives worried over them was endearing.

"I'm glad you were able to get here. I wasn't sure you'd be able to, after those rats had enough time to make some defenses."

"It was difficult to find, sir. Their wards aren't like anything else I've run across. But the fidelius you cast, and how it was connected to you, seems to have created a kind of back door through their wards, sir."

Ron nodded thoughtfully. This at least gave them some kind of advantage. "Well, first off, can you lead the rest of the elves here so they know how to get here and I can share the secret with them?" Ron asked.

"I can do that, sir." Spartacus nodded firmly.

"Okay, let's get the rest of the elves here. Bring a library trunk too, so we can move this library away. No sense leaving it for the enemy to get on the off chance they manage to break in here." Ron stated.

The TRG had already made copies of the library for everyone in the group, but they had decided to leave the originals in place. It was more historical that way. But now, with thieves and raiders sitting right outside, he wanted to deny them anything they might profit off of.

The next hour Ron spent helping the Elves pack up the library. Well, he started to help them. But then the exasperated elves told him to get out of their hair and leave the work to a real Elf. They were naturally more polite about it, but that was the message Ron received. Embarrassed, he just sat himself down and waited for them to be done. He certainly wasn't pouting. Badass wizards like him don't pout.

Once the library was packed up and moved, Ron spent several minutes talking with Spartacus about their situation. They soon discovered that Spartacus couldn't make his way to the rest of the pyramid from the fideliused room. The wards were just too good. The only reason they could even get into the fideliused room was because of the backdoor created by the fidelius when the wards were brought up, and their Elf bond to the caster of the fidelius created a link for them to take advantage of the backdoor.

Ron and Spartacus soon decided on a method to trap the door. If the enemy breached the doors, it would explode in their faces and cause as much death and destruction as possible. 'If they want this room and this portal, they're going to pay in blood, sweat, and tears.' Ron vengefully thought.

"Time to go back to Hogwarts. Spartacus, pop me out would you? We know Elf transport won't set off their wards. I don't want to chance apparation in this situation."

Spartacus nodded solemnly, and took Ron back to his room in Hogwarts.

Ron checked the time. He'd already missed breakfast, and was absent from his first class. 'Too bad I don't have any time turners. Put that on the shopping list' Ron noted to himself. 'Well, if I'm already late it's best not to worry too much and rush. I've got to at least shower and change to look presentable. Enough questions will be thrown my way without looking a mess to make the professors suspicious of just what I've been up to.'

Ron took his time in the shower, soaking in the hot water. When he got back to his room, he noticed a breakfast tray on his desk. Looked like Spartacus or his wives were looking out for him. Making the Elves part of his family and giving them powerful names was probably the best decision he'd made in this life. They made everything run smooth. Without them he wouldn't have the profitable businesses that he had at the young age of 15.

The monthly profit that the Acromantula Silk Farm alone generated ensured that he would live comfortable his whole life. Add in the potions ingredients and his future plans for magical creature ranches and his future family, when he got married and had kids, would be one of the more well off ones. 'And that's just the beginning.' Ron thought to himself ambitiously.

Finishing up his late breakfast, Ron made his way to the next class on the schedule, Charms with the Gryffindors. He waited outside for the previous class to be finished, spending the time on reading a book. Normally he would have sent a clone to class, but after having missed the morning, he knew it would be better to go in person this morning.

"Ron! Where have you been!" His sister questioned him with a strong punch to the shoulder. 'Yup, that would have likely dispelled the clone' Ron thought. 'Best let her get it out of her system. Besides, it could have been hexes, so she's not completely upset.'

"Hello, sister dearest. I missed you too." Ron smilingly stated. He looked over to Luna with a smile, and was surprised to see a look of worry on her face too. That was unusual. Usually Luna only had calm acceptance or happiness showing. It was difficult to get Luna to a state where she actually show worry on her face.

"Don't be a prat!" Ginny barked. And he did kind of feel like one now after seeing how worried they had been. "Why weren't you here this morning, and you didn't even leave a message?"

Shaking off the small amount of guilt he felt for letting them worry, Ron looked around at his immediate surroundings. The rest of Ravenclaw and the Gryffindors had congregated in the halls. Harry and Hermione were close enough to hear while not intruding. They too were interested in the answer. But there were too many ears present to talk about what he'd actually been doing.

"Well, I overslept, I'm afraid to say. Had a late night studying. How about we meet up for a special picnic after class?" Ron met Harry's eyes meaningfully, trying to convey the message of him being invited. "I'll tell you all about what I learned from my late night study session then." Ron cheerfully finished.

Thankfully Harry seemed to understand, if the way he looked at Hermione after nudging her was any indication. Thankfully Ron wouldn't be forced to be any more blatant in his invitation. Color him paranoid, but he didn't want to sink ships from his loose lips. He still had no idea how the enemy had found their pyramid in order to attack, so who knows who had been watching them.

Despite having the loyalty oaths in place for the guild, someone could mention a critical piece of information around a spy without actually betraying them. There were limits to how strict they could make the loyalty oaths, after all. But a pair of flapping gums could give up information that when put together with other information would add up to something critical. So private talks it would be.

"Fine." Ginny replied after looking at him for a bit. "Say thank you to Luna, Ron. She made a copy of notes from history for you."

"Thanks Luna, you're a lifesaver." Ron cheerfully said as he accepted the notes.

"You're welcome Ron." She stated with a soft smile. "You missed a most interesting lesson. It was all about the differences trade goods had on the economies and politics of the magical and muggle worlds. Did you know that because the muggle world isn't able to farm Acromantula silk, the only place they could get silk was from the silk cocoons from worms they called silkworms from the East?"

"Hmm, never thought about it, to be honest. So what did they trade in return for worm silk, then?" Ron asked Luna with a smile at her enthusiasm. This was a happy Luna who never suffered from bullying from her house, and so she was so much more engaged and enthusiastic than in the canon books.

"Well, all kinds of things, like cotton, wool, ivory, gold, and silver. They had a route they would trade along, called the silk road…" Luna continued to chat with Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione about the history lesson he had missed until Professor Flitwick ushered in the class for lessons.

* * *

After class, Ron, Ginny, Luna, Harry, and Hermione made their way to the Room of Requirement for their picnic. Ron had the room recreate a nice beach scene for their relaxing pleasure.

After they finished eating, Ron relayed to them what happened in the night, about how a group found and took over their pyramid, and how Ron put the portal room under a fidelius. It took several minutes for the group to calm down from their anger over the audacity of the thieves.

"This group that attacked our pyramid and overcame our wards as well as the fidelius blitzkrieged it. They had dozens of wizards and witches, and they were coordinated. This implies they have a large hidden organization that is good at gathering information, if they were able to target a fideliused facility and take it out before anything could be done."

"They never saw me, so I came back to school and acted like nothing happened because we know nothing about these people. We have no idea who could be passing them information or if they know all about our group. So it was best to avoid scrutiny by acting normal, as much as possible." Ron started explaining after the group had calmed down.

"We have no idea how they even found out about the pyramid, or how much they know about us. So acting suspiciously would only expose us, and let them gather more information about us. It's probably best to continue our daily routine so everyone can see us acting like we don't know anything. Meanwhile we can get the elves to start snooping around careful like. They are super stealthy, so they would be our best bet to start gathering information."

"Because right now, the enemy is in the dark, while we're exposed, they can easily see us and learn about us, while we don't have a clue just who they are. So we need to get sneaky and come up with solid info before we can do anything." Ron concluded.

"Right, but first we need to pass this information to the rest of the guild." Hermione sensibly interjected. "They need to know what's happened and to be cautious of anyone that may be watching them."

Ron nodded in agreement. "I figured it would be best if we split up the guild members into groups. Each of us will be in charge of contacting them through the guild messaging service and coordinating with them so everyone is kept in the know."

"Harry, you're a good man for the practicals. I'd like you to recruit a few people to work with you, like maybe Sirius, Tonks, and Hestia for example. They have a lot of training as aurors. Start figuring out what lessons our guild members need to learn and practice to keep safe. Work out coordinating partners so they always have someone to watch their backs."

Harry looked suitably determined. His experience in his previous life with the DA and in this life with helping the tier 2 and 3 students gave him experience to make sure people were focused on learning practical skills that would help them stay alive. Over the course of his time in his new life and his focus on his goals he'd lost a lot of his naïve desire to be "just Harry". He'd learnt a lesson that you can't accomplish great things if you're languishing in mediocrity.

"Hermione, you're good at research. I'd like you to head the group in charge of researching and crafting new tools, spells, and potions for us to use. We need to continue to develop our repertoire and improve if we want to be able to protect ourselves. Especially figure out some good defensive wards and escape methods if someone gets cornered. I want our people to be able to escape if these enemies repeat their blitzkrieg attack method on any of our guild members. Remember to think outside the box on solutions, even muggle methods might be useful."

Hermione nodded firmly. Now that she had a direction to aim her intelligence, Ron could see that she no longer looked as panicked about the news Ron had brought. It was something she could do while remaining with Harry and making sure he didn't get into too much trouble. Research and protecting her husband was such a familiar thing that a lot of her panic at the unknown enemy lessened. They had a plan and were working at it.

"Ginny and Luna, I'd like you two to work together on the intelligence gathering organization. Luna, you've got plenty of experience with the Quibbler and the world of news so I'd like you to make contacts to organize people to gather all kinds of recorded information to collate it and find hints of our enemies. Ginny, you're a good people person, I'd like you to organize our guild members into being more aware of their surroundings and gather information for us. Even something innocuous might add up with something else to give us a vital clue as to who these rats are."

"I'm going to be working with the Elves to figure out who the people at the pyramid are, and how to attack them back, to take back our pyramid." Looking at those around him, Ron noticed that Luna and Ginny looked really nervous with their assignments. That just wouldn't do. "I know we're young and inexperienced at the moment. But the thing we need to remember is that we are actually quite skilled and intelligent. We have a lot of people we can lean on to help us with our tasks. Remember to delegate work and ask for help if you need it. I'm always available as an ear to vent if you feel overwhelmed." Ron smiled at them comfortingly.

"Everyone in the guild is going to be nervous and afraid. They won't know what to do. So we're going to be the voices giving them guidance and direction. Remember that you don't always need to have all the answers; knowing when it is better to assign a task to someone else to get those answers is oftentimes the correct answer."Ron finished in a somewhat joking manner to lessen the tension.

Ron's words worked as he had intended. He watched as Luna and Ginny seemed to relax a bit, so they weren't so high strung. Even Harry and Hermione, the mentally older couple, seemed to benefit from his reminders and seemed more focused.

With no more questions everyone got on with their work. Ron crafted a message for the guild to inform everyone in the guild of just what happened and what steps were being taken to combat this enemy. He included the information to contact Harry, Hermione, Luna, or Ginny if they wanted to be included in the lists for each of the various "departments". George and Fred were quick to offer their services to the guild's new "Q", the lady Hermione.

Ron then set about figuring out how to add an emergency alert system to the guild messaging service. If someone was under attack they could hit the panic button and the alert would go to the active branch headed by Harry so he, or whoever had the watch, could coordinate backup for the beleaguered.

* * *

The last couple of weeks of school before summer passed in a blur of exams, study, combat practice, and organizing the guild members to be better able to identify threats and defend themselves.

On the last day of school Ron didn't bother to make his normal clones after the morning workout. He simply hung out with his friends at breakfast, joking around and acting normal as they made their way to the train. But while he spent time playing chess across from Greengrass while Luna and Ginny played exploding snap next to him, he kept the enemy in the back of his mind. Idly thinking about them and pondering his next steps.

They still hadn't made much headway in identifying the group that stole their pyramid from them. Even though the enemy had done all they could to hide the location and existence of the pyramid from them, Ron still had his little backdoor fidelius. So he had been able to relocate the pyramid site, despite the enemy wards.

He and Spartacus had been able to map out the location, size, and shape of the wards pretty easily. With Ron sitting in the portal room and Spartacus on the outside, it was a simple matter for the Elf to feel where Ron was and circumnavigate the edge of the wards while drawing it out on a map.

So while Ron and Spartacus knew where the pyramid was, identifying the wizards inside was a different, more difficult matter. With the existence of magical travel it wasn't like they could have an Elf sit outside the wards and watch them come and go, follow them, and identify them.

After some thought Ron decided that at the current time he wouldn't let the guild members know that he's still got a backdoor into the pyramid. Right now what he has, figuratively speaking, is the tiger's tail sticking out of the bush. If they act precipitously the tiger will hide its tail and vanish, and they might never find it again. If they are going to do something, he wants it a sure thing that they will catch this cat, instead of scaring it off.

And in the meantime, the guild would spend its time getting prepared for conflict. Increasing security, gathering intel, and getting combat ready. On reflection Ron felt it was naïve to think that just because they had gotten rid of Riddle and his band they would have smooth sailing.

The guild now had their wake up call. They already had a prize and profit stolen from them. Their future business ventures would have much more stringent security in place.

The distracted Ron had his deep thoughts interrupted as Greengrass checkmated him. Snorting at himself for losing, he endured her teasing at being better than him. It was a funny situation for Ron. Despite getting the memories of little 11 year old Ron Weasley, and seeing just how obsessed he could get while playing chess, Ron himself had no such love of the game. Add in the distraction of his thoughts, and it was no wonder he allowed himself to get trounced.

Abandoning his deep thoughts, he spent the rest of the train ride simply enjoying the time spent with his friends and guild mates in their expanded train car. Ron reveled in the warm fuzzy feelings of friendship while Luna talked about the latest scandals in the ministry. Neville and the other pot heads poked their latest Herbology obsession over on the side. Harry and Hermione simply cuddled in the corner while enjoying the class's antics. And then the soaking wet flying foxes chased the laughing chaos twins through the car for some trick they'd played. It was a good train ride.

* * *

Upon arriving in Cairo Ron didn't immediately notice that anything was wrong. He was still too caught up in joking with George about his green ears. While they weren't broccoli anymore, they still had a greenish tint that would probably fade over the next couple hours.

"Where's Bill?" Ginny's voice interrupted Ron's joking.

Looking around with a frown on his face, Ron noticed that Ginny was right. Bill wasn't anywhere to be seen. This was the first time that he hadn't already been waiting for them upon their arrival.

"Dunno, 'lil sis." Fred said.

Looking around the international floo reception area, Ron didn't see anyone that looked out of place, or who paid them an inordinate amount of attention. But that didn't mean that someone wasn't watching them. It hadn't been that long ago that their pyramid had been attacked, after all.

"Let's make our way to the inn. Keep on the alert for anyone coming after us." Ron quietly suggested to his siblings. They quickly agreed. As they left the area, the siblings quickly fell into a modified squad movement formation. George and Fred took co-point, spreading apart a bit. Ginny was in the center, with Ron following behind, occasionally looking behind them for anyone suspicious.

Halfway through the magical district, they saw their mother bustling up to them. Ron didn't let his guard down at first, well aware that there were methods to fake an identity. But with a quick and subtle wandless scanning spell, he determined that it was his mum and that she wasn't under any controlling spells.

"Oh, why didn't you wait for me at the ministry, instead of wandering all about! It's not safe to be wandering on your own like that!" Molly almost shrilly greeted them.

Now that he'd confirmed her identity, he took a closer look at her. She looked awful, like she hadn't been eating and her face was full of grief. The last time he'd seen her looking like this was when Percy's death had been discovered.

Was there another death in the family?

"What's wrong, mum?" Ginny bluntly asked.

Molly seemed taken aback for a moment at the blunt question from her daughter. Her eyes darted around the market place for a moment, before returning to her newly returned Hogwarts kids.

"Come back to the inn. There's…bad news." When it looked like Fred and Ginny was going to ask more questions, she firmly interrupted them. "Not here. We'll talk back at the inn."

Seeing that answers would not be forthcoming, Ron and his siblings followed along behind their mother in grim silence. The worry and uncertainty were contagious, and with no immediate answers their imaginations were able to run wild.

They soon arrived at the inn, and Ron felt a little bit of relief to see Arthur, their father, manning the bar.

The small relief at seeing their dad fine didn't last long though, as they moved back to their family room. If it wasn't their dad, was the problem with Bill?

Ron soon got his answer, as they entered the family's common area in their expanded room. Bill was sitting on the floor in the corner, absently batting around a small ball. Drool was leaking out of his mouth, and his face had no sign of intelligence.

"Bill!" Ginny cried out as she rushed to his side. Bill didn't react to her presence, simply continuing to play with the ball.

"What happened to him?" The twins cried out in horror. Their smart, suave, crafty older brother looked like he was now an idiot. Who did this to him? Was it some curse from his work?

Tears once more leaking down her face, Molly answered them. "A few nights ago, someone dumped him in front of the inn. He was Obliviated of all his memories. He doesn't even know who he is now." She sobbed out. Ron moved to give her a hug, to support her. His this-lifes-mother looked like she was barely holding on.

"Remus Lupin came by with a mediwitch. They can't do anything to help him, because he's also-" Molly sobbed again, before gathering herself. "He's also lost his magic." She finally sobbed out the problem.

If Ron weren't right next to his mum, he'd be cursing up a blue streak. Fred and George didn't let that stop them. Molly didn't even reprimand them, showing how affected she was.

"They think he was magically forced to show the group who attacked the pyramid where it was. This violated his oaths and now…" she paused again to gather herself. "Now, without his magic core, he's dying. My son is dying from losing his magic and he doesn't even know who he is!" She started crying hard. So did Ginny, and George moved to support her while Fred started punching the wall in anger, cursing under his breath.

"The group dropped him off here as a warning." A voice spoke from the door. Looking over, Ron saw their dad, Arthur, at the door looking haggard. He moved in and replaced Ron in hugging Molly. "They Obliviated him, and dropped him off with a letter of warning that they would be so much nastier if we tried to do anything to them. It was a blatant threat to back off."

Ron just felt more waves of anger crashing on him. 'Those rat bastards.' He thought, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. With no immediate outlet for his anger, he struggled to calm himself. This was his family. THIS was HIS family they messed with.

Ron made his way to his mini-RoR. It was time to vent his spleen where he wouldn't do any damage. He would plan when he could once more think straight. And then, when it was time to act, he vowed to himself to be as ruthless as necessary.

Mess with his family, would they?


	23. Chapter 23

Ron took a deep breath in.

Held it.

Slowly exhaled.

He opened his eyes; he felt calm and in control again. The embers of rage still burned deep inside, but at least he wasn't in danger of acting impulsively.

Looking around at the broken remains of faceless dummies the mini-RoR had spawned for Ron to take his anger out on, he felt some satisfaction at the results of the spells he'd been throwing around for the last 20 minutes. He was only four years into his magical education, and he could already cause such damage. Ron felt…good when he examined the strength of his magic and body.

Ron wasn't deluding himself into thinking he was all powerful, yet. But seeing the results of his years of study was very satisfying. Ron also recognized that he wasn't anywhere near the peak of his abilities, so he didn't feel complacency.

His cultivation techniques had 9 levels built into them, and he was only at the first level. Currently, all his stats were above 160. From what he could tell, he would reach the second level when he raised his stats to 200. It would take him quite a few years to get to level 9 at the rate he was going, but he wasn't discouraged. All it would take is daily effort and he'd get there.

Sighing, Ron patted the remaining dust from his clothes. The brief bout of destruction that he'd indulged in had taken the edge off of his anger when thinking about his brother Bill's situation.

Going into his store, he quickly purchased the needed potion to enable the growth of a magical core. Ron hoped the potion would work for Bill's situation. According to his status page, being a wizard was part of a bloodline. And creating a magical core in a muggle might be similar to the ninja bloodline potion, granting the muggle a wizarding bloodline. So Ron was unsure if the same potion would work on someone who already had the wizarding bloodline to regrow his magical core.

But it was the only hope Bill had in this situation to save his magic, thus saving his life.

Ron exited the mini-RoR. He saw his family still huddled around Bill's room, watching Bill play with a ball like a little kid. It was heartbreaking for the family to see their eldest son/brother in such a situation. As the eldest he'd always been a role model for his younger siblings. He always seemed to have such a joy in living. Seeing him reduced to a mental 5 year old in a man's body was difficult for them.

When Ron had left earlier he'd noticed that his father, Arthur, had stopped anyone from questioning where Ron was going. Smart man, that Arthur. He was aware that different people react and process grief and bad news differently. Better that Ron blow up on practice dummies rather than at his family in a moment of anger.

Ron walked up to Molly. "Mum, there's something we can try. The guild store has that potion that can make a muggle grow a magical core. I've got it right here." Ron held out the potion. "I don't know if it'll work, but it's worth a try."

Sobbing, Molly grabbed Ron in a hug. "Oh, Ronnie. You're a good boy. Will it really work?" Molly sobbed.

"Dunno, mum. But it's really the only chance we've got to save Bill."

Nodding, Molly took the potion from Ron and poured it down Bill's throat. Ron looked around at the hopeful faces of his siblings and parents. He really hoped this worked.

After drinking the potion, Bill fell unconscious. But he was twitching around, as if unsettled. Arthur levitated Bill into his bed, and then conjured couches for everyone to sit on while waiting. They would hold vigil over Bill until he woke, hopefully having recovered his magic.

Several minutes later, Ron heard the door to their room open. Looking over, he saw Charlie enter. Charlie quickly hugged his parents then siblings in greeting. Looking over at Bill in the bed, he asked how Bill was.

Ron sat back and let the conversation flow over him. His new family, all together again in the wake of an attack on one of them. His mind went back to the unknown group who attacked his family. He thought about how vulnerable his family was here in the inn. They didn't have any home, any defenses. Anyone can enter and attack his parents, siblings, and him at any time they want.

Whoever the group was, they would have been fools if they didn't interrogate his brother of any intel he had. The magic of the oaths would have kept most of their secrets safe. But there was a lot to be learned just from knowing Bill's identity and researching who the Weasley family interacted with. And who those people interacted with.

Ron needed to do the same thing against his enemy, because at the moment they are completely unknown. Once he gets an identity of someone in the group, he could start tracing it back. But how to catch that tiger tail sticking out of the brush?

Ron starting planning his steps in his mind. First, defense and protection. Second, intelligence. Third, preparation. Fourth, attack.

Ron stood up from his seat. Tapping Arthur and Charlie's shoulders, Ron motioned for them to follow him to talk away from Molly and her vigil on Bill. Fred and George noticed their movements and got up to follow. Ginny looked up, staring in Ron's eyes for a moment; then went back to sitting vigil with Molly.

Ron led the group back to his room, requesting of the mini-RoR a room that can assure their privacy. Once inside, Ron began casting more anti-eavesdropping spells. Once he was sure no one would overhear them, he turned to Arthur. Ron hesitated, not sure how to broach the topic he was about to bring up.

Seeing that Ron was unsure how to begin, Arthur briefly smiled. "Go ahead, Ron. Say whatever you've got to say, son."

Nodding decisively, Ron began. "Whoever that group is that attacked the pyramid and Bill, knows all about us. They've already done a number on Bill. They've threatened to do worse. We're vulnerable here in the inn. It's not our property and there is little we can do to set up protections. Relying on our unknown enemy's kindness to not attack us again would be foolish. We need to leave the inn and move somewhere more defensible. Especially with Bill so vulnerable."

Arthur smiled sadly. "Son, even with the portion of the treasure we got from the pyramid, we don't have enough to buy and ward our own place. Between the costs of buying out our contract here at the inn, property costs, warding costs, Hogwarts tuition, and other expenses, we don't have enough to move."

Ron grimaced. He hadn't been sure of just how much the family had, since Arthur and Molly felt that it wasn't something their kids needed to worry about. Molly especially seemed to have strict ideas of what their kids should and should not worry about, and the finances, or lack thereof, was one of those areas only adults should worry about.

Ron hadn't been planning on revealing his own finances and business to his parents anytime soon. But the safety of his family was more important than not bruising his parent's ego with the knowledge that their 15 year old son was rich and more successful than them.

Ron looked at his father and older brothers. "I've got a place for us to go." Ron stated.

Arthur and Charlie looked at each other, questions passing back and forth unsaid. Fred and George were staring at Ron in confusion.

"What do you mean you have a place?" Arthur eventually asked. "How did you get this "place"?"

Ron scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. "You know those UMALTs that I found?" At their nod, Ron continued. "Well, back in first year I sold several of them to the Potters. With that money and the help of some elves I've bonded to, I captured the acromantulas in the forbidden forest and created a silk farm. It pays well. Well enough that I got a plot of land and have started a potions ingredient farm. We can move to that plot of land and build a new Weasley Family Burrow."

Arthur looked like he was about to start lecturing Ron for a moment. Then Arthur paused for a bit to take a deep breath. He thought about what Ron said and its ramifications for a while.

Charlie looked like he wanted to start questioning Ron about how he captured and held the acromantulas but barely held off until their father finished his questioning. Charlie and his fascination with beasties still amused Ron. Fred and George meanwhile had their heads together, whispering something Ron wasn't paying attention to.

"Son." Arthur looked Ron straight in the eye. "How did you do, er…accomplish this and why haven't you told us about it before?"

"Well, the how was easy, dad. Magic." Ron shrugged at their eye rolling. "Yeah yeah. Just a second, let me show you." Ron then had the mini-RoR bring in an example of his portkey turret. He then explained how he and his elves had set up the turrets in the forest to capture all the acromantulas. He then explained his trunk farms and ranches, and how the elves keep the acromantulas fed and gather the silk to be sold.

"As to why I didn't tell you yet? That's even easier." Clearing his voice, Ron started to imitate Molly's voice. "Oh Ron, you don't need to worry about that. You just enjoy being a kid for a while longer. Let us adults worry about that." Ron paused, eyeing his father knowingly. Arthur looked a bit sheepish at his spot on imitation of Molly and her likely response to any of their children trying to build a business.

"You've got to admit dad, he's right about mum's reaction!" Fred exclaimed while George just laughed. Charlie was chuckling while poking Arthur on the shoulder knowingly.

Arthur had a sheepish smile on his face. "Yes. Well. Your mother has your best interests in mind. She loves you all." Arthur loyally defended his wife.

"We know dad." George chimed in.

"We've felt her love often!" Fred exclaimed while exaggeratedly rubbing his backside. Ron laughed along with his family at the joke.

"I knew that if I brought the idea to you then Mum wouldn't go for it." Ron stated when the laughter died down. "So I just did it on my own. With several elves to work with and act as my proxy in buying and selling it was easy to set up. I had them buy a piece of land to set up our trunk farms and ranches. So we can set up a household and defenses there for the Weasley clan."

Arthur still looked a little hesitant to make the plunge.

"Dad." Charlie put his hand on Arthur's shoulder. "We all love and respect you and Mum. You two have worked so hard for us to get a good education. But we're in a vulnerable position right now. I'm still a pretty green dragon handler and I don't make much yet. But Me and Bill have been saving up as much as we could to get you and Mum a house so you could stop living here in the inn. We know you've always taken pride in providing for us, but let us do this for you and Mum and the family."

"Me and George have already stopped pranking as much and set up a joke shop by owl mail. We've been trying to save up some too for the same reason." Arthur looked surprised at the admission from his chaos loving twin sons.

"We figure we've got one more year to perfect our stock before we graduated. Then, when we graduated, we planned to open a store in Diagon. Once we made enough we were going to rebuild the Burrow." George added on.

Arthur looked back and forth between his sons, proud at them, and gratified at the men they were becoming. Ron would never admit later that he'd felt all those squishy emotions. And a group hug definitely didn't happen. They were all manly men, dammit. But it was a good moment, at least until Fred and George goosed the rest of them. Damn troublemakers.

The group of men then trooped back to join Molly and Ginny at Bill's bedside to resume their vigil.

* * *

Ron stayed up with his family all night watching over Bill. He could see that the potion was doing something for Bill, but they were unsure if it was really working to restore Bill's magic to him. After an hour, it seemed Bill fell into a deep sleep, no longer tossing and turning.

In the morning, Arthur left to keep the inn running, while Charlie fetched Madam Pomfrey to give a check up on Bill. The staff of Hogwarts had long since become members of the guild. The professors were very helpful for the student members, and the guild provided the teachers many resources and new books they could find nowhere else.

Judging from the guild chat, everyone was very invested in the results of Bill taking the potion. One of the biggest fears magicals had from making oaths was an accident occurring and losing their magic. Their whole life and identities were wrapped up in their ability to do magic. So the idea that they could regain their magic if something were to happen to them was of great importance to them.

Ron wondered if it was something he should be concerned about. If someone could betray the Guild, then chug a potion they'd previously purchased to regain their magic, then the deterrence of the oaths didn't mean as much. He'd have to figure something out to prevent that kind of nefarious backstabbing later.

Ron ate his breakfast as he watched Madam Pomfrey waving her wand over Bill, running her diagnostic spells. It looked like it took all of Molly's will not to badger Pomfrey for answers and let the woman work. Arthur took a break from running the inn to come in for the news.

"Good news, Molly, Arthur." Pomfrey stated while looking at the distraught mother and father. "His core has reestablished itself. He'll be fine now." Molly collapsed in a chair nearby from the sudden relief of all her nerves and hopes being wound so tight. "That was the good news." Pomfrey stated briskly after giving Molly a moment. "The not so good news is that whatever was done to his mind can't be undone. Right now, mentally, he's about five years old. All his memories after that time are just…gone."

Molly sobbed at that news, while Arthur did his best to comfort her.

"Isn't there anyway to get his memories back?" Arthur asked.

"I'm afraid not. Not at this time. We've consulted with everyone we can about this issue. Whatever they did wasn't obliviation. They didn't just cover over the memories. They erased them somehow. I'm sorry to say, but your son will have to grow up again from five years of age on." Pomfrey paused to let them digest that bit before she continued on.

"After consulting several healers at St. Mungos, the best thing you can do for him now is a permanent de-aging potion. It'll let him grow up again normally, hit puberty at the right mental age, and is the best thing for him, really. Otherwise he'll have to deal with adult impulses and urges with a five year old mind. And that would be quite difficult for him to handle. It's not something a five year old is equipped to understand, mentally. Best to let him grow into it as he matures and grows up again."

While Arthur and Molly talked with Pomfrey about obtaining the potion to de-age Bill, Ron stepped up next to Ginny, who was standing at the head of the bed Bill was laying on. Ron wrapped his arm around Ginny's shoulders in a half hug.

"How are you doing, Ginny?" Ron asked his sister.

"This sucks." Ginny answered, sadly running her fingers through Bill's hair. "Bill was always the cool older brother, taking my side against you jerks growing up." Ron cough laughed at that. "He was always my favorite brother because of that, always on my side. And now that he needs help, there's nothing we can do. There's nothing I can do to help him!" Ginny sobbed a little.

Ron tightened his hug on his sister to comfort her. "Yeah, we can't get him his memory back for him. And it'll feel like we've lost him, our cool, oldest brother." Ron paused to let that sink in. It really would be like Bill died, in a way. Everything that made Bill, Bill, was stripped away. So the grieving process would still go on, even though Bill was alive. "But you're wrong, you know. There's plenty we can do to help him from now on. I won't lie, and say it will ever be the same, but Bill will still be with us, even if he's now going to be our youngest brother instead of our oldest."

George and then Fred joined Ron in hugging their sister while Charlie had joined Arthur and Molly in talking with Pomfrey.

"You know," Fred stated thoughtfully. "Now that Bill will change position from the eldest to the youngest, he needs a nickname to reflect his unusual status."

"You're right, brother mine. Something unique." George added in.

"He'll have been on both sides of the age bracket." Fred added in.

"Yes, just like a book end." George smiled as he added in.

"I think we have a winner." Fred declared with a straight face. "Bookend Bill!"

Ginny growled as she glared at the twins. "You are not calling Bill that!"

"Wingside William?" George asked, which earned him a punch on the shoulder from Ginny.

"No, absolutely not!"

Ron decided he'd best step back from the "brainstorming" session the twins were engaging in to lighten the mood. The twins seemed to be pathologically driven to drive the gloom away, even if they had to throw themselves under the batbogey bus to accomplish it.

"Bellend Weasley?" Was suggested to the annoyed screech of Ginny.

'And out comes the wands.' Ron thought with a smile, as Ginny started chasing the twins around in order to end their quest for stupid nicknames. Ron just shielded himself and Bill, staying out of the confrontation while enjoying the entertainment.

* * *

Once Arthur convinced Molly of the need to move to a more secure location, in order to protect their family, things moved quickly. Ron's family had packed, informed the owner of the inn, paid off the fee for breaking the contract on such short notice, and moved into their new home by that evening.

To help them with the move, Ron had introduced the elves to his family, which led to interesting reactions on the part of the Weasleys. Fred and George had run into many of the house elves in the kitchens of Hogwarts, and so the unusual size of the elves had shocked them. Ron could tell that Arthur and Charlie were also curious about how the elves had grown so much, as well as their atypical behavior, but they chose to go along without questions for the time being.

The house that came with the land Ron had purchased wasn't anything special from the outside. It was a simple two story muggle looking country home sitting on a 2 acre lot. There were six rooms, two baths, a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room. Due to the liberal use of magic, however, each room was spacious and had a private bath, and there was plenty of elbow room at the dining table.

In the yard behind the house was a barn, where the elves had set up the trunks for the farms, ranches, and their own living spaces to raise their families. No matter the great changes the elves had gone through since they were house elves, some habits were harder to break than others, and living in small spaces was one of those habits. So the ability to have as much trunk space as they needed, while not taking up much room on Ron's land, satisfied the elves need to live small and hidden.

The de-aging potion for Bill would take a few more days to prepare, so while Ron's parents were preoccupied with taking care of Bill at the moment, Ron would have some time to arrange matters.

Shortly after Ron had newly arrived in this world, the Weasleys had been forced to sell their home to make ends meet. During that time Ron had made some suggestions to Arthur and Molly on what they could do for work in order to stay in Britain, but his parents had chosen a different path. Using one of Bill's contacts they had found work at the wizarding inn in Egypt, instead of taking a chance on working in the muggle world to make money.

Ron had learned at least one lesson from this, namely that while his parents saw him as a kid, they would not have any real faith or trust in his "outlandish" ideas. Working in the muggle world was definitely out there for anyone born and raised in the wizarding world. So Ron didn't really blame them for not striking out into new territory, even if he had been a bit frustrated at the time.

But now, Ron wasn't going to throw ideas out there for his parents to ignore. It was time to get a little more direct. He would present his parents with an already formed business to run that would be profitable for them, so they wouldn't have to rely on their son for their income. It would save their pride and give them something better to do than work for minimum wages for someone else.

So later in the first night in their new home, and after everyone had gone to bed, Ron called Spartacus in for a serious planning session.

The first issue Ron addressed with Spartacus was the need for more elves in service. If Ron wanted the elf-power to be able to expand his business, spy on his unknown enemy, explore the ninja lands, and watch over his family, then he needed to induct more elves into his strange family.

Spartacus promised Ron that he would be able to recruit at least 20 more elves by the end of the week, and more in the following weeks to come. Spartacus would then split them up into their future jobs and they would begin training for their various tasks, once the aftermath of the naming ritual ran its course.

One group would be detailed to continue explorations of the ninja land. They would spy and record all they could of the ninja or samurai lives and training methods and skills. The more skills they could bring over and make available to guild members, the quicker the guild could start becoming more powerful.

The way the guild store was set up now was that in order for a skill, technique, or item to become available for guild members to purchase from the store, the initial buyer of the technique had to pay a much higher price. This "unlocked" the item for purchase. There were incentives and kickbacks for the guild members that unlocked items, so that there was a carrot for such behavior. However Ron was impatient for the ninja skills to become available to the guild members. If he added the training scrolls to the guild store, it would unlock the skills and techniques for purchase immediately.

The slow method of waiting for someone in the guild to get interested in ninja skills, save enough points, and finally unlock it, was too slow for Ron. These ninja skills, known only to his guild in the wizarding world, were the quickest way for his guild member's combat and survival skills to increase quickly. In the uncertain conflict with an unknown enemy, Ron was feeling quite a bit of pressure and responsibility to make sure his guild members had a better than "decent" chance to survive.

These ninja skills would give the guild an edge on their enemy. So Ron instructed Spartacus to train a batch of elves to explore the ninja world and bring back training manuals, information, and samples of new plants and animals for possible potions or selling.

Secondly, Ron and Spartacus talked about the need to expand their business. If they were going to fight a shadowy organization, they needed to have money, goods, and services exclusive to them.

Ron knew there were many new guild members from the tier two and three schools that were now getting a good education. But if, upon graduation, there was no available jobs for the newly educated, then these guild members would become disillusioned by the lack of opportunities. Sure, they now had hope from getting a good education. But what good is education alone in feeding their family if there was no work and income as a result?

So Ron and Spartacus started making plans to expand their business. They would start hiring guild members looking for work. Potioneers, medics, enchanters, rune scholars, warders, beast wranglers, crafters, and many more professions were needed to build and expand the market.

Diagon Alley was already packed full. It had been there for many years, and London had grown around it. Ron and Spartacus started making plans for building a new wizarding shopping center away from any city. They would be in control of the land and businesses. Ron planned to put together proposals for the other members of the guild who had many resources they could invest into such an endeavor.

As well off as Ron was now, he was still not rich enough to bankroll the new shopping alley solo. So including the other members in such a venture would allow them to control the setup, instead of just inviting people willy nilly and hoping for the best.

And if their well planned alley just happened to have strong defenses and counter attack wards in case some nameless bastards tried to take what isn't theirs again? Well, one can only hope those greedy blackguards tried to steal from them again. They could have the pleasure of having their hands chopped off.

Last of all was the issue of setting up elf spies and guards around the wizarding world. Ron knew that if he left the enemy in hiding they would be emboldened to attack again. Especially as his business and fortunes grew, those thieves would be eyeing him and his money from the shadows. It was imperative that the elves try to get information on just who they were.

Spartacus and his family would start organizing the elf gossiping network. Just as was proven to Ron about the guild oaths not being 100% effective in preventing his enemies from getting intel from his people. The loyalty of the house elves to their masters wouldn't prevent some loose lips from spraying him a trail to follow.

As Ron was preparing for bed after the meeting with Spartacus, he realized that he felt some amount of…satisfaction. He was still angered by the attack, but he was moving everyone in the right direction to prepare for conflict. Everything that he could think of doing was being delegated out. His people and elves were on the job.

And he was looking forward to the results.


End file.
